1~S3
THE UNITED STATES
THE UNITED STATES
ITS HISTORY AND CONSTITUTION
BY
ALEXANDER JOHNSTON
Latk Professor op Jurisprudence and Political Econoxt
IN Princeton College
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1902
3»" ■) 3 '5.
COPTRIGHT, 1888,
By ALEXANDER JOHNSTON.
Copyright, 1889,
Bt CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
530b^
TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. GUSHING AND CO.
PRESSWORK BY BERWICK AND SMITH.
BOSTON.
PUBLISHERS' NOTE.
The contents of the present volume, by the late Pro-
fessor Alexander Johnston, first appeared as the article
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica on the history and Con-
stitution of the United States. The narrative, it should
be borne in mind, ends with the year 1887 — the last of
the period entitled by the author "The Eeconstructed
Nation: 1865-1887." There are, however, few details
which the events of the past two years have modified,
and few which need to be supplemented. Some slight
verbal changes, where evidently indicated, have been
made in this sense, a note added with reference to the
admission into the Union of Washington, Montana, and
North and South Dakota, and the election of Harrison
and Morton, and the prohibition of Chinese immigration
chronicled. It has not been thought advisable, however,
to change or supplement the text in two or three other
instances in which statistics of 1889 might have been
given, but in which the reader will perceive those of
1887 to have been retained as better preserving the con-
sistency and significance of the passages in which they
occur.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. Colonization 1
n. The Struggle for Expansion .... 23
III. The Struggle for Union 33
IV. The Struggle for Independence ... 60
V. The Struggle for National Government . 79
VI. The Development of Democracy . . . 120
VII. Democracy and Nationality .... 139
VEIL Industrial Development and Sectional Di-
vergence 166
IX. Tendencies to Disunion 191
X. The Civil War 214
XI. The Reconstructed Nation .... 245
Bibliography 273
Presidents and Vice-Presidents . . . 277
Appendix — Constitution of the United
States 279
Index 295
THE UNITED STATES.
COLONIZATIOK
1607-1750.
1. Though the voyages of the Cabots (1497-98) along
the coast of North America were the ground which the
English finally adopted as a basis for their claims on
that continent, no very effective steps were taken to
reduce the continent to possession until after 1606.
Martin Probisher (1576) failed in an attempt
^ '_ ■■- Early voyages
to explore Labrador. Sir Humphrey Gilbert and
(1578) failed in a similar attempt on the con- ^^p'°^^^'°"^-
tinent; and in a second effort (1583) he was lost in a
storm at sea on his return. In 1584 his half-brother
Ealeigh took up the work under commission from Queen
Elizabeth. He sent two small vessels under Amidas
and Barlow. They explored the south-central coast of
what is now the United States, and returned with such
flattering reports that the courtly Ealeigh at once named
the country Virginia, in honor of the queen, and sent
out a colony. It was starved out in a year (1585). He
sent another to the same place, Eoanoke Island (1587),
THE UNITED STATES.
but it had disappeared when it was searched for three
years after. Gosnold (1602) found a shorter route across
the Atlantic, and spent a winter on an island off the
present coast of Massachusetts ; but his men refused to
stay longer. These are the official records of English
explorations up to 1606 ; but it is pretty certain that
fishing and trading voyages, of which no record was kept,
were more common than has been supposed, and that
they kept alive a knowledge of the country.
2. In 1606 James I. formed two companies by a single
charter. To one, the London Company, he granted the
, ^ North-American coast between 34° and 38°
London
and piynnouth N. lat. ; to the otlicr, the Plymouth Com-
ompanies. p^^^-^y^ wliosc membership was more in the
west of England, he granted the coast between 41° and
45° N. lat. The intervening coast, between lat. 38° and
41°, or between the E-appahannock and Hudson rivers,
was to be common to both, but neither was to plant a
settlement within 100 miles of a previous settlement of
the other. Each was to be governed by a council ap-
pointed by the king, and these councils were to appoint
colonial councils of thirteen, with really absolute powers.
Neither company did much in colonization : the London
Company gave up its charter in 1624, and the Plymouth
Company, after a complete change of constitution in
1620, surrendered its charter in 1635. But the London
Company at least began the work of colonization, and the
Plymouth Company parcelled out its grant to actual colo-
nists. Above all, the charter of the two companies had
granted the principle to Avhich the colonists always
appealed as the foundation of English colonization in
North America, as the condition on which immigrants
had entered it, irrevocable unless by mutual consent of
COLONIZATION.
crown and subjects : "Also, we do, for us, our heirs and
successors, declare by these presents that all and every
the persons, being our subjects, which shall go and in-
habit within the said colony and plantation, and every
their children and posterity, which shall happen to be
born within any of the limits thereof, shall have and
enjoy all liberties, franchises, and immunities of free
denizens 'and natural subjects within any of our other
dominions, to all intents and purposes as if they had
been abiding and born within this our realm of England,
or in any other of our dominions."
3. The London Company was first in the field. A ship-
load of the adventurers then swarming in London was
sent out under Christopher Newport. He found a fine
river, which he named after the king, and on its banks,
within the present State of Virginia, he settlement of
planted the settlement of Jamestown^ (13th Jamestown;
May, 1607). Misgovernment, dissension, mismanage-
ment, and starvation were almost too much for the
infant colony, and several times the colonists were on
the point of giving it up and going home. Twelve
years were required to put Virginia on a . .
sound footing. By that time the liberal
element in the London Company had got control of it,
and granted the colonists a representative government.
1 The former settlement of Jamestown is now in James City county,
Va., about 32 miles from the mouth of the James river. It was at first
the capital of the colony, but began to decline when Williamsburgh
was made the capital. Its death-blow was received when it was burned
in 1676, during Bacon's rebellion. It was not rebuilt, and has now
almost disappeared. " Nothing remains but the ruins of a church tower
covered with ivy, and some old tombstones. The river encroaches year
by year, and the ground occupied by the original huts is already sub*
merged."
THE UNITED STATES.
The year in which this house of burgesses met (1619)
was the year in which African slaves were introduced
into the colony from a Dutch vessel.
4. Separatists from the Church of England began the
more northerly settlements. Driven from England, they
found refuge in Holland. Thence returning for the
moment to England, a company of 102 of them set sail
for America in the " Mayflower," landing (December 21,
Settlement of 1620) at Plyuiouth, in the south-eastern part
Plymouth i of ^i^g present State of Massachusetts. The
rigors of a new and cold country, combined with poverty
and the payment of interest at 45 per cent., made the
early years of the Plymouth colony a desperate struggle
for existence, but it survived. It had no special charter,
but a license from the Plymouth Company. Other little
towns were founded to the north of this settlement, and
in 1629 these were all embraced in a charter given by
of Massachu- Charlcs T. to the Governor and Company of
setts Bay; Massachusctts Bay. This was a Puritan ven-
ture, composed of men of higher social grade than the
Plymouth Separatists, and was meant to furnish a refuge
for those who dreaded the ecclesiastical policy of the
crown. The next year the company took the bold step
of transferring its organization to America, so as to be
out of the immediate notice of the crown and its agents.
Eleven vessels took more than a thousand colonists over,
and the real colony of Massachusetts was begun.
5. The charter of the London Company was surren-
dered to the crown, as has been said, in 1624 ; and the
king thereafter disposed of the territory which had been
granted to it as he pleased. In 1632 the new
colony of Maryland was carved out of it for
Lord Baltimore. In 1663 the territory to the south of
COLONIZATION. 5
the present State of Virginia was cut off from it and
called Carolina, covering the present States of settlement of
North and South Carolina and Georgia. In Carolina;
1729 Carolina was divided into North and South Caro-
lina: and in 1732 the last of the colonies,
of Georgia ;
Georgia, was organized. Five distinct colo-
nies were thus formed out of the original London Com-
pany's grant.
6. When the Plymouth Company finally surrendered
its charter in 1635, it had made one ineffectual attempt
at colonization (1607) near the mouth of the Kennebec
river, in Maine, and one complete colony, Massachusetts
Bay, had arisen within its territory. Another colony,
that of Plymouth, existed by license. Massachusetts set-
tlers, without even a license, were pouring into the vacant
territory to the south of Massachusetts, there to form the
colonies of Connecticut and Ehode Island, , ^
^ of Connecticut
afterwards chartered by the crown, 1662 and and
1663. A few fishing villages to the north of o e s an ,
Massachusetts, established under the grant of John
Mason, were the nucleus of the colony of of New Hamp-
New Hampshire. The present States of Ver- ^'^'^^•
mont and Maine were not yet organized. Out of the
original Plymouth Company's grant were thus formed
the colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, K-hode Island,
and New Hampshire. The name New England was
commonly applied to the whole territory from the begin-
ning, having been first used by Captain John Smith in
1614.
7. Nine of the "old thirteen" colonies are thus ac-
counted for. The remaining four fell in the territory
between the two main grants, which was to be common to
both companies, but was in fact never appropriated by
6 THE UNITED STATES.
either. The Spaniard had settled contentedly far to the
south ; and the Frenchman, still bound by too many of
the ancient ecclesiastical influences to contest supremacy
with the Spaniard, had settled as far to the north as pos-
sible, in Canada. England had been so far released from
ecclesiastical influences by the spread of the Reformation
as to be prepared to contest supremacy with Spaniard,
Frenchman, or any one else ; but her lingering desires to
avoid open conflict at any cheap rate had tended to fix
her settlements on the very choicest part of the coast, in
the middle latitudes, — a fact which was to color the
whole future history of the continent. The concurrent
claims of the two English companies in the central zone
seem to have deterred both of them from any attempt to
interfere with the development of a colony there by the
only other people of western Europe which was prepared
The Dutch to grasp at such an opportunity. The Dutch
settlements. (^iQQQ) gcut out Hcury Hudsou, au English-
man in their service, and he made the first close explorar
tion of this central region. Dutch merchants thereupon
set up a trading post at Manhadoes (the present city of
New York), where a government under the Dutch West
India Company was organized in 1621, when the Dutch
states-general had granted the territory to it. The terri-
tory was named New Netherland, and the town at the
mouth of the Hudson river ISTew Amsterdam. Sweden
sent a colony to Delaware bay in 1638 ; but the attempt
was never thoroughly backed, and in 1655 it was surren-
dered to the Dutch.
8. By the time of the Restoration in England, the
northern and southern English colonies had developed so
far that the existence of this alien element between them
had come to be a recognized annoyance and danger. From
COLONIZATION.
the Hudson river to Maine, from the Savannah river to
Delaware Bay, all was English. Eoads had been roughly
marked out; ships were sailing along the respective coasts
as if at home ; colonial govermnents were beginning to lean
upon one another for support ; but between the two was
a territory which might at any moment turn to hostility.
There was an evidently growing disposition in New
England to attempt the conquest of it unaided. When
England and Holland found themselves at war (1664),
the opportunity arrived for a blow at Holland's colonial
possessions. An English army and fleet under Colonel
Nichols touched at Boston, and, proceeding thence to New
Amsterdam, took possession of the whole central terri-
tory. It had been granted by the king to his brother,
the duke of York, and the province and city were now
named New York in honor of the new pro- jhe colony of
prietor. The duke, the same year, granted a New York;
part of his territory to Berkeley and Carteret, and the
new colony of New Jersey was the result, of New jersey;
In 1681 the great parallelogram west of New ^f pennsyi-
Jersey was granted to Penn and called Penn- v^"'^:
sylvania. In the following year Penn bought from the
duke of York the little piece of territory which remained
united to Pennsylvania until the revolution, then be-
coming the State of Delaware. The central
territory thus furnished four of the "old
thirteen " colonies. New England four, and the southern
portion five.
9. If there was any governing idea in the organization
of the colonial governments, it was of the The colonial
rudest kind ; and in fact each was allowed to govemnnents.
be so largely modified by circumstances that, with a
general similarity, there was the widest possible diver-
8 THE UNITED STATES.
gence. A general division of the colonial governments
The charter IS into charter, proprietary, and royal govern-
coionies. mcnts. The charter governments were Mas-
sachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. In these the
colonial governments had charters from the crown, giving
the people, or freemen, the right to choose their own
governors and other magistrates, to make their own laws,
and to interpret and enforce them. Only Connecticut
and Ehode Island kept their charters intact. The Massa-
chusetts charter was cancelled by the crown judges (1684)
under a quo warranto; and in 1691 a new charter was
granted. As it reserved to the crown the appointment of
the governor, with an absolute veto on laws and after
1726 on the election of the speaker of the lower house,
Massachusetts was thus taken out of the class of purely
charter colonies and put into that of a semi-royal colony.
The proprietary colonies were New Hampshire, New
The proprietary York, Ncw Jcrscy, Pennsylvania (including
colonies. Dclawarc), Maryland, Carolina, and Georgia.
These were granted to proprietors, who, as inducements
to settlers, granted governmental privileges almost as
liberal as those of the charter colonies. Only Penn-
sylvania, Delaware, and Maryland remained proprietary
colonies down to the revolution, and in these the gov-
ernor had a charter right of veto on legislation. Vir-
The royal ginia bccamc a royal colony in 1620, and
colonies. ]^ew York as soon as its proprietor became
king ; and other proprietors, becoming tired of continual
quarrels with the colonists, gradually surrendered their
grants to the crown. New Hampshire, New York, New
Jersey, North and South Carolina, and GJ-eorgia had thus
become royal colonies before the revolution. In the royal
colonies, commonly called provinces, the governors were
COLONIZATION.
appointed by the crown, and had an absohite veto on
legislation. There were thus at last three i)roprietary,
seven royal, one semi-royal, and two charter colonies.
10. The two charter colonies were simple Representative
representative democracies, having the power systems.
to legislate without even a practical appeal to the crown,
and having no royal governor or agent within their bor-
ders. Their systems were the high-water mark to which
the desires and claims of the other colonies gradually
approached. Massachusetts and the proprietary colonies
were very nearly on a level with them ; and the royal or
proprietary governor's veto power was rather an annoy-
ance than a fundamental difference. But in all the
colonies representative governments had forced their
way, and had very early taken a bicameral shape. In
the charter colonies and Massachusetts the lower house
was chosen by the towns and the upper house from the
people at large, and the two houses made up the "as-
sembly." In Pennsylvania and Delaware there was but
one house. In the royal colonies and in Maryland the
lower house alone was elected by the j^eople ; the upper
house, or council, was chosen by the crown through the
governor ; and the assent of all three elements was essen-
tial to legislation. In the final revolution the charter
colonies did not change their governments at all ; they
already had what they vanted. The revolution was con-
summated in the other colonies by the assumption of
power by the lower or popular house, usually known as the
"assembly," the governor or council, or both, being ousted.
11. All these governmental organizations jown
take a prominent place in American history, ^"^ p^^'^^-
and had a strong influence on the ultimate development
of the United States ; and yet they touched the life of
10 THE UNITED STATES.
the people at comparatively few points. A more marked
and important distinction is in the local organizations
of the northern and southern colonies. All the southern
colonies began as proprietary governments. Settlers
went there as individuals connected only with the
colony. To the individual the colony was the great
political factor ; his only other connection was with his
parish, to which the colony allowed few political func-
tions ; and, where political power touched him at all, it
was through the colony. In time it became necessary to
allow political powers to the parish or county, but they
were really more judicial than political. " The southern
county was a modified English shire, with the towns left
out." The whole tendency shows the character of the
immigration in this part of the country, from English
districts outside of the influence of the towns.
12. In New England local organization was quite dif-
ferent. A good example is the town of Dorchester.
The Organized (March 20, 1630) in Plymouth,
town system. England, whcu its people were on the point
of embarkation for America, it took the shape of a dis-
tinct town and church before they went on shipboard.
Its civil and ecclesiastical organizations were complete
before they landed in Massachusetts Bay and came
under the jurisdiction of a chartered company. Its
people governed themselves, in their town government,
in all but a few points, in which the colony asserted
superiority. As the colony's claims increased, the town's
dissatisfaction increased. In 1635 the town migrated in
a body, with its civil and ecclesiastical organization still
intact, into the vacant territory of Connecticut, and there
became the town of Windsor. Here, uniting with other
towns, which had migrated in a similar fashion, it formed
COLONIZATION. 11
the new Commonwealtli of Connecticut, in which the
local liberty of the towns was fully secured in the frame
of government. Ehocle Island was formed in the same
way, by separate towns ; Vermont afterwards in the
same way ; and the towns of the parent colony of Mas-
sachusetts learned to claim a larger liberty than had
been possible at first. Thus, all through New England,
the local town organizations came to monopolize almost
all ordinary governmental powers ; and the counties to
which the towns belonged were judicial, not political,
units, marking merely the jurisdiction of the sheriff. In
the annual town meetings, and in special meetings from
time to time, the freemen exercised, without any formal
grant, the powers of self -taxation, of expenditure of
taxation, of trial by jury, and of a complete local gov-
ernment. Further, the lower houses of their colonial
legislatures were made up of generally equal represen-
tations from the towns, while the upper houses were
chosen from the colony at large. In this was the germ
of the subsequent development of the United States
senate, in which the States are equally represented, and
of the house of representatives, representing the people
numerically (§§ 104, 105, 109, 110).
13. The two opposite systems of the north and south
found a field for conflict in the organization of the cen-
tral territory after its acquisition (§ 8). The jhe middle
crown agents were strongly disposed to follow colonies.
the more centralized system of the southern colonies,
though Penn, having organized counties and restricted
his legislature to a single house, based it on the counties.
In NeAV York and New Jersey the Dutch system of
" patroonships " had left a simulacrum of local indepen-
dence, and a stronger tendency in the same direction
12 THE UNITED STATES.
came in through immigration from New England. To
encourage this immigration, the New Jersey proprietors
gave town powers to many of them 5 and some of the
New Jersey towns were merely transplanted New Eng-
land towns. But the middle colonies never arrived at
any distinct system; at the best, their system was a
conglomerate. Much the same result has been reached
in the new Western States, organized under the care of
the Federal Government, where the New England immi-
gration has brought with it a demand for local self-
government which has resulted in a compromise between
the two systems of town units and county units.
14. Ecclesiastical divisions were at first as strong as
civil diversities. The New England colonies were Con-
Ecciesiasticai grcgatioual, and these churches were estab-
systems. Hshcd aud supported by law, except in Rhode
Island, where the Baptists were numerically superior.
In the royal colonies generally there was a steady dispo-
sition to establish the Church of England, and it was
more or less successful. In language there were striking
dissimilarities, due to a most heterogeneous immigration.
It was said that every language of Europe could be
found in the colony of Pennsylvania. But, after all,
this diversity had no indications of persistence ; the im-
migration in each case had been too small to
mmigra ion. g^^^^^^^^,^ itsclf. Very Httlc of the wonderful
increase of American population between 1607 and 1750
was due to immigration ; most of it had come from natu-
ral increase. After the first outflow from Old to New
England, in 1630-31, emigration was checked at first by
the changing circumstances of the struggle between the
people and the king, and, when the struggle was over,
by the better-known difiiculties of life in the colonies.
COL ONIZA TION. 13
Franklin, in 1751, when he estimated that there were
" near a million English sonls " in the colonies, thought
that scarce eighty thousand had been brought over by
sea. No matter how diverse the small immigration
might have been on its arrival, there was a steady pres-
sure on its descendants to turn them into Englishmen ;
and it was very successful. When Whitefield, the revival-
ist, visited America about 1740, he found the popidation
sufficiently homogeneous for his preaching to take effect,
all the way from Georgia to New England. The same
tendency shows itself in the complete freedom of inter-
colonial migration. Men went from one colony to an-
other, or held estates, or took inheritances in different
colonies, without the slightest notion that they were
under any essentially diverse political conditions. The
whole coast, from Nova Scotia to the Spanish possessions
in Florida, was one in all essential circumstances ; and
there was only the need of some sudden shock to crys-
tallize it into a real political unity. Hardly anything in
history is more impressive than this mustering of Eng-
lishmen on the Atlantic coast of North America, their
organization of natural and simple governments, and
their preparations for the final march of 3000 miles west-
ward, unless it be the utter ignorance of the home Gov-
ernment and people that any such process was going on.
15. This ignorance had one singular effect in com-
pleting the difference between the new and the
old country. An odd belief that European
plants and animals degenerated in size and quality on
transplantation to the western continent was persistent
at the time even among learned men in Europe, and
Jefferson felt bound to take great pains to combat it so
late as the end of the 18th century. That passage in
14 THE UNITED STATES.
Thackeray's Virginians, where the head of the elder
Virginian branch of the family returns to England, to be
treated with contempt and indifference by the younger
branch which had remained at home, indicates the state
of mind among the influential classes in England which
bent them against any admission of Americans to the
honors or privileges of the English higher classes. A
few titles were given; entails were maintained in the
southern colonies ; but there were no such systematic
efforts as are necessary to maintain an aristocratic class.
This may have been gratifying to the ruling class in
England; but it was in reality an unconsciously syste-
matic effort to develop democracy in the English colonies
in North America. In combination with the free repre-
sentative institutions which had taken root there, it was
very successful, and, when the final struggle between the
English ruling class and the colonists took shape, the
former had singularly few friends or allies in the colonies.
What the results might have been if efforts had been
made to build up a titled class in the colonies, with
entailed revenues and hereditary privileges in the upper
houses of the colonial legislatures, is not easy to imagine ;
but the prejudices of the privileged classes at home
eliminated this factor from the problem. Every influence
conduced to make the American commonwealths repre-
sentative democracies ; and the reservation of crown in-
fluence in the functions of the governors or the appoint-
ment of the council was merely a dam which was sure
to be broken down as development increased.
16. Social circumstances had all the features of life in
Social a new country, aggravated by the difficulties
conditions, ^f intcr-communication at that time. In the
southern and middle colonies there was a rude abundance,
COLONIZATION. 15
SO that, however much the want of luxuries might be felt,
there was no lack of the necessaries of life. The growth
of tobacco, indigo, and rice in the southern colonies was
so large a source of wealth that luxury in that part of
the country had taken a more pronounced form than in
the others. The southern planter, trained in English
schools and universities and admitted to the English bar,
was more like an English gentleman in a condition of
temporary retirement than an American colonist. The
settler of the middle colonies was the ordinary agricul-
turist. The hardships of colonial life were the special
lot of the New England colonist. For some reason —
perhaps because the forests retained the snow on the
ground — the New England winters were more severe
than they are now. The rudely built house, with its
enormous chimney attracting draughts of outer air from
every point, was a poor protection against the cold.
Travel, difficult enough at the best, became impossible in
winter, unless the snow rose so high as to blot out the
roads and permit the traveller to drive his sledge across
country. Medical and surgical attendance was scarce in
summer, and hardly dreamed of in winter. The religious
feeling of the people was against amusements of all
kinds, except going to funerals, an occasional dinner, and
the restricted enjoyments of courtship. It was a point
of honor or of religious feeling to exclude luxury from
church equipment : stoves were not known in Connecticut
churches until the beginning of this century, and yet
new-born infants were taken to church for baptism in the
bitterest weather.^
1 An extract from a New England diary of 1716 will give some notion
of social circumstances at that comparatively late period. " Lord's
16 THE UNITED STATES.
17. Wealth in tlie soiitliern colonies was sufficient to
give the better classes there an education of a very high
order ; and they in turn, by virtue of their polit-
Education. , ^ ' . /, ^ , . . _ \ .
ical and social leadership, imparted something
of their acquisitions to those below them. In the middle
colonies commercial pursuits and those interests which
go to make men of affairs had something of the same in-
fluence on special classes. In New England education was
more general, even though it had no such advantages for
special classes as at the south. The first immigration
into New England contained an unusually large propor-
tion of English university men, particularly among the
ministers. These fixed the mould into which their de-
scendants have been run, and New England's influence
in the dnited States has been due largely to them. The
town system added to their influence. Owing to it the
ebbing and flowing of population through New England
was not blind or unorganized. Every little town was a
skeleton battalion, to be filled up by subsequent increase
and immigration ; and the ministers and other profes-
sional men made a multitude of successors for themselves,
with all their own ideas. Considering the execrable
quality of school and college instruction in New England,
as elsewhere at the time, it is very remarkable that, as
the original supply of university-bred leaders died off,
there was a full crop of American-bred men quite pre-
pared to take their places and carry on their work. Here
Day, Jany. 15. An extraordinary cold Storm of wind and Snow. Blows
much as coming home at Noon and so holds on. Bread was frozen at
the Lord's table; Mr. Pemberton administered. Came not out to after-
noon exercise. Though 'twas so cold, yet John Tuckerman was bap-
tised. At six a-clock my ink freezes so that I can hardly write by a
good fire in my wive's chamber. Yet was very comfortable at meeting.
Laus Deo"
COLONIZATION. 17
were Harvard and Yale, tlie two leading colleges of the
country, wMcli in 1760 liad six : ^- Harvard College, in
Massachusetts (founded in 1636) ; William and Mary
College, in Virginia (1692) ; Yale College, in Connecticut
(1700) ; Princeton College, in New Jersey (1746) ; Penn-
sylvania University (1749) ; and King's, now Columbia,
College, in New York (1754).
18. Shipwrights had been sent to Virginia at an early
date ; but shipbuilding never made great head in the
southern colonies, in spite of the fact that
. . . , -, Commerce.
they had all the materials for it m abundance.
At a later period ships were built, and it was not uncom-
mon for planters to have their private docks on their
own plantations, where their ships were freighted for
Europe. But such building was individual : each jjlanter
built only for himself. The first vessel built by Euro-
peans in this part of the continent was constructed by
Adrian Block at New Amsterdam (1614) . Many small
vessels were built at the mouth of the Hudson river
under Dutch and English domination, but New York's
commercial supremacy did not fairly begin until after the
revolution. Perhaps the hardships of life in New Eng-
land made its people prefer water to land ; at any rate
they took to shipbuilding early and carried it on dili
gently and successfully. Plymouth built a little vessel
before the settlement was five years old, and Massachu-
setts another, the "Blessing of the Bay" (1631). Be-
fore 1650 New England vessels had begun the general
foreign trade, from port to port, which combined exporta-
tion with a foreign coasting trade and mercantile business,
the form in which New England commercial enterprise
was to show itself most strongly. Before 1724 English
ship-carpenters complained of the competition of the
18 THE UNITED STATES.
Americans, and in 1760 the colonies were building new
ships at the rate of about 20,000 tons a year, most of
them being sold in England.
19. The earliest manufactures in the colonies were
naturally those of the simplest kind, the products of saw-
Manufactures mills, grist-mills, and tanneries, and home-
and mining, madc cloth. The search for ores, however, had
been a prime cause of immigration with many of the
settlers, and they turned almost at once to mining and
metallurgy. Most of their efforts failed, in spite of
" premiums," bounties, and monopolies for terms of years
granted by the colonial legislatures. To this the produc-
tion of iron was an exception. It was produced, from
the beginning of the 18th century, in western Massachu-
setts and Connecticut, in eastern New York, in northern
New Jersey, and in eastern Pennsylvania. All these
districts were about on a level, until the adaptation of
the furnaces to the use of anthracite coal drove the New
England and New York districts, which had depended
on wood as fuel, almost out of competition (§ 210). Until
that time iron production was a leading New England
industry. Not only were the various products of iron
exported largely ; the manufacture of nails, and of other
articles which could be made by an industrious agricul-
tural population in winter and stormy weather, was a
" home industry " on which New Englanders depended
for much of their support.
20. The colonial system of England differed in no
respect from that of other European nations of the time ;
The English probably none of them could have conceived
colonial systenn. ^^ij othcr as possiblc. The colouics were to
be depots for the distribution of home products on
a new soilj whenever they assumed any other func-
COLONIZATION. 19
tions tliey were to be checked. The attempts of the
Americans to engage in commerce with other nations,
their shipbuilding, and their growing manufactures were,
in appearance, deductions from the general market of
English producers, and the home Government felt itself
bound to interfere. Virginia claimed, by charter- right,
the power to trade freely with foreign nations ; and
Virginia was notoriously on the side of the Stuarts
against the parliament. In 1651 parliament passed the
JSTavigation Act, forbidding the carrying of jhe Naviga-
colonial produce to England unless in English *'°" '-^'^^•
or colonial vessels, with an English captain and crew.
By the Act of 1661 the reach of the system was extended.
Sugar, tobacco, indigo, and other " enumerated articles,"
grown or manufactured in the colonies, were not to be
shipped to any country but England. All that was neces-
sary to make this part of the work complete was to add
to the "enumerated articles," from time to time, any
which should become important colonial products. The
cap-stone was placed on the system in 1663, when the
exportation of European products to the colonies was
forbidden, unless in vessels owned and loaded as in the
preceding Acts and loaded in England. Virginia's com-
merce withered at once under the enforcement of the
system. New England, allowed to evade the system by
Cromwell for political reasons, continued to evade it
thereafter by smuggling and bold seamanship.
21. In 1699, on complaint of English manufacturers
that the colonists were cutting them out of their foreign
wool markets, parliament enacted that no wool Restrict ve
or woollen manufactures should be shipped '-^'^^•
from any of the colonies, under penalty of forfeiture of
ship and cargo. This was the first fruits of the appoint-
20 THE UNITED STATES.
nient of the Board of Trade and Plantations three years
before. From this time until the revolution, this body was
never idle ; but, as its work was almost confined to schemes
for checking or destroying the trade and manufactures of
the plantations, it cannot be said to have done them any
great service. It was continually spurring on colonial
governors to turn their people to the production of naval
stores, or to any occupation which would divert them
from manufactures ; and the governors, between fear of
the legislatures which paid their salaries and of the
Board which was watching them narrowly, had evidently
no easy position. At intervals the Board heard the com-
plaints of English manufacturers, and framed remedial
bills for parliament. From 1718 the manufacture of iron
was considered particularly obnoxious ; and, so late as
1766, Pitt himself asserted the right and duty of parlia-
ment to "bind the trade and confine the manufactures"
of the colonies, and to do all but tax them without repre-
sentation. In 1719 parliament passed its first prohibi-
tion of iron manufactures in the colonies ; and in 1750
it forbade under penalties the maintaining of iron-mills,
slitting or rolling mills, plating-forges, and steel-furnaces
in the colonies. At the same time, but as a favor to
English manufacturers, it allowed the importation of
American bar-iron into England, as it was cheaper and
better than the Swedish. Before this, in 1731, parliar
ment had forbidden the manufacture or exportation of
hats in or from the colonies, and even their transporta-
tion from one colony to another. All these Acts, and
others of a kindred nature, were persistently evaded or
defied ; but the constant training in this direction was
not a good one for the maintenance of the connection
between the colonies and the mother country, after the
COLONIZATION. 21
interested classes in the colonies should become numerous
and tlieir interests large. Unluckily for tlie connection,
the arrival at this point was just the time when the
attempt was first made to enforce the Acts with vigor
(§ 38).
22. English imports from the North American colonies
amounted to £395,000 in 1700, £574,000 in 1730, and
£761,000 in 1760; the exports to the colonies jhe American
in the same years were £344,000, £537,000, "^^^'<^^-
and £2,612,000. In spite of parliamentary exactions
and interferences, a great and entirely new market
had been opened to English trade. The difference
between the year 1606, when there was not an English
settler on the North-American continent, and 1760, when
there were a million and a half with a great and growing
commerce, is remarkable. It is still more remarkable
when one considers that this population was already
nearly one-fourth of that of England and Wales. Its
growth, however, steadily increased the difficulties of
maintaining the English system of control, which con-
sisted mainly in the interference of the governors with
legislation proposed by the assemblies. As the numbers
and material interests of the subjects increased, the
necessities for governmental interference increased with
them, and yet the power of the subjects to coerce the
governors increased as well. Only time was needed to
bring the divergence to a point where change of policy
must have disruption as its only alternative.
23. Merely material prosperity, the development of
wealth and comfort, was very far from the whole work
of the colonies. In spite of attempts in Religious
almost every colony to establish some form freedom.
of religious belief on a government foundation, religious
22 THE UNITED STATES.
freedom had really come to prevail to an extent very
uncommon elsewhere at the time. Even in New Eng-
land, where the theory of the state as an isolated oppor-
tunity for the practice of a particular form of worship
had been held most strongly, persecution was directed
chiefly against the Quakers, and that mainly on semi-
political grounds, because of their determination to annoy
congregations in their worship or to outrage some feeling
of propriety. As soon as it came to be realized that the
easiest method to deprive them of the power of annoy-
ance was to ignore them, that method was adopted;
indeed, two of the New England colonies took hardly
any other method from the beginning.
24. In political work the colonies had been very suc-
cessful. They had built up thirteen distinct political
Political nnits, representative democracies so simple
freedom, ^^^^(j natural in their political structure that
time has hardly changed the essential nature of the
American State governments. In so doing, the Ameri-
cans were really laying the foundations of the future
national structure, for there is hardly a successful fea-
ture in the present national government which was not
derived or directly copied from the original colonial
growths ; while the absolutely new features, such as the
electoral system (§ 119), introduced into the national
system by way of experiment, have almost as generally
proved failures, and have been diverted from their origi-
nal purposes or have become obsolete.
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXPANSION. 23
II.
THE STEUGGLE FOR EXPANSION.
1750-63.
25. The English, settlements along the Atlantic had
covered the narrow strip of coast territory quite thor-
oughly before it was possible to think of expansion west-
ward. Since about 1605 Canada had been undisputedly
in the hands of the French. Their traders ^, ^
The French
and missionaries had entered the present in Canada
western United States ; Marquette and Joliet
(1673) and La Salle (1682) had explored the upper
Mississippi river, and others, following their track, had
explored most of the Mississippi valley and had built
forts in various parts of it. About 1700 the French
opened ground at the mouth of the Mississippi : D'lber-
ville (1702) founded Mobile and the French Mississippi
Company (1718) founded the city of New Orleans. Con-
sistent design, foiled at last only by failure of material,
marks the proceedings of the French commanders in
America for the next thirty years. New Orleans and
Quebec were the extremities of a line of well-placed forts
which were to secure the whole Mississippi valley, and
to confine the English settlements forever to the strip of
land along the coast bounded on the west by the Ap-
palachian or Alleghany range of mountains, which is
parallel to the coast and has but one important break in
its barrier, the opening through which the Hudson river
flows. The practical genius of the French plans is shown
24 THE UNITED STATES.
by the fact that so many of these old forts have since
become the sites of great and flourishing western cities :
Natchez, Vincennes, Peoria, Fort Wayne, Toledo, Detroit,
Ogdensbnrgh, and Montreal either are built on or are
so near to the old forts as to testify to the skill and
foresight against which the English colonies had to con-
tend. To this whole territory, extending from the mouth
of the Mississippi to that of the St. Lawrence, covering
even the western part of the present State of New York,
the name of New France was given. The English pos-
sessions, extending in hardly any place more than a
hundred miles from the ocean, except where the Dutch
had long ago planted the outpost of Fort Orange, or
Albany, on the upper Hudson, were generally restricted
to the immediate neighborhood of the coast, to which
the early population had naturally clung as its base of
supplies.
26. The French difficulties were even greater than
those of the English. The French people had never had
,„ , that love of emigration which had given the
Weakness "-* <^
of the English colonies their first great impetus.
system, "g^g^^ whcrc the French settled they showed
more of a disposition to coalesce with the native popular
tion than to form a homogeneous people. The French
were commonly far stronger with the Indians than were
the English ; but at the end of a hundred and fifty years,
when the English colonists numbered a million and a
quarter, all animated by the same political purposes, the
population of all New France was only about 100,000,
and it is doubtful whether there were 7500 in the whole
Mississippi valley. The whole French system, wisely as
it was designed, was subject to constant and fatal inter-
ference from a corrupt court. Its own organization was
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXPANSION. 25
hampered by attempts to introduce the feudal features
of home social life. A way was thus opened to exactions
from every agent of the court, to which the people sub-
mitted with hereditary patience, but which were fatal to
all healthy development. Perhaps worst of all was the
natural and inevitable formation of the French line of
claims. Trending westward from Quebec to meet the
northward line of forts from New Orleans, it was bent at
the junction of the two parts, about Detroit, and its most
important part lay right athwart the path of advancing
English migration. The English wave was thus to strike
the weaker French line in flank and at its weakest point,
so that the final issue could not in any event have been
doubtful. The French and Indian war probably only
hastened the result.
27, There had been wars between the French and the
English colonies since the accession of William and Mary,
mostly accessory to wars between the mother inter-coioniai
countries. The colonies had taken part in the ^^'■^•
wars ended by the peace of Ryswick (1697), the peace
of Utrecht (1713), and the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle
(1748). The alliance of the French and Indians made
all these struggles wretched experiences for the English.
The province of Canada became a prison-pen, where cap-
tives were held to ransom or adopted into savage tribes.
Outlying settlements were broken up, or forced to expend
a large part of their energy in watchful self-defence ; and
it required all the persistence of the English colonies to
continue their steady forward movement. Nevertheless
they even undertook offensive operations. They captured
Port Eoyal in 1690, but it was given up to the French in
1697. They captured it again in 1710, and this time it
was kept, with most of Acadia, which was now to be
26 THE UNITED STATES.
known as Nova Scotia. In 1745 the colonies took the
strongest French fortress, Louisburgh, on Cape Breton
Island, with very little assistance from the home Gov-
ernment. Their land expeditions against Montreal and
Quebec were unsuccessful, the reason for failure being
usually defective transport.
28. In the treaties which closed these wars, the inter-
ests of the colonies met with little consideration. The
jhe most notable instance of this was the 12th
" asiento." article of the treaty of Utrecht, by which an
English company was secured the exclusive right to carry
African slaves into American ports. Originally meant
to obtain the Spanish trade in negroes, the company had
influence enough to commit the crown to a steady support
of the African slave-trade in its own colonies. Again
and again the English legislatures in North America
attempted to stop the slave-trade, and were prevented
by the royal veto. This will serve to explain a passage
in Jefferson's first draft of the American Declaration of
Independence, as follows : — " He [the king] has waged
cruel war against human nature itself. . . . Determined
to keep open a market where men should be bought and
sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing
every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this
execrable commerce.''
29. All parties seem to have felt that the peace of Aix-
la-Chapelle was but a truce at the best ; and the French
court seems to have come at last to some comprehension
of its extensive opportunities and duties in North Amer-
ica. With its tardy sympathy, its agents on the new
continent began the erection of barriers against the great
wave of English westward migration which was just
appearing over the crest of the Alleghanies. It was too
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXPANSION. 27
late, however, for the English colonies were really able
to sustain themselves against the French colonies and
court together. Their surveyors (1747) had crossed the
crests of the mountains, and had brought back appetiz-
ing accounts of the quality of the lands which lay beyond.
The Ohio Company (1749), formed partly of jhe ohio Com-
Virginian speculators and partly of English- P^"y-
men, had obtained a grant of 500,000 acres of land in the
western part of Pennsylvania (then supposed to be a part
of Virginia), with a monopoly of the Indian trade. As
the grant was completely on the western side of the
Alleghanies, and was the first English intrusion into the
Ohio valley, it behooved the French to meet the step with
prompt action. Their agents traversed the Ohio country,
making treaties with the Indians and burying lead plates
inscribed with the lilies of France and a statement of the
French claims. The erection of the Ohio Company's first
fort (1752) brought on the crisis. The main line of
French forts was too far away to be any check upon it.
The French leaders therefore began to push a branch
line eastward into the disputed territory. Their first
work (1753) was put up at Presque Isle (now Erie),
about 100 miles north of the Ohio Company's fort. The
citadel of the disputed territory had been begun on the
spot where Pittsburgh now stands, where the Alleghany
and Monongahela unite to form the Ohio river. Gover-
nor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, had obtained the right to
erect the fort by treaty with the Indians. From Presque
Isle the French began running a line of forts south,
through the present '^oil district" of Pennsylvania,
towards the headquarters of the English.
30. Washington was then a land-surveyor, barely of
age J but he was the agent whom Dinwiddle selected t«
28 THE UNITED STATES.
carry an ultimatum to the French, at Presque Isle. After
a perilous winter passage through the wilderness, he
found that the French had no intention of evacuating
their position, and returned. Virginia at once (January,
1754) voted money and men to maintain the western
claims of the colonies ; and Washington was sent with
400 provincial troops to secure the half-built fort at the
head of the Ohio. The French were also pushing for that
place. They won in the race, drove away the English
workmen, and finished Fort Du Quesne, named after their
governor. Washington, compelled to stop and fortify his
position, won the first skirmish of the war with the
French advanced guard, but was forced to surrender on
terms (July 4, 1754). The usual incidents of a general
Indian warfare followed for the rest of the year.
31. Both Governments began to ship regular troops to
America, though there was no formal declaration of war
The French and nutil 1756. Thc year 1755 was marked by
Indian War. ^^^q surprisc and defeat of Braddock, a gal-
lant and opinionated British officer who commanded an
expedition against Fort Du Quesne, by the complete
conquest of Kova Scotia, and by the defeat of the
French, under their principal officer, Dieskau, at Lake
George, in New York, by a force of provincial troops
under Sir William Johnson. In 1756 the greatest of
French Canadian governors, Montcalm, arrived ; and the
tide of war went steadily against the English. The offi-
cers sent out by the home Government were incompetent,
and they generally declined to draw on the colonists for
advice. Montcalm found them an easy prey; and his
lines were steadily maintained at the point where they
had been when Washington surrendered at Fort Neces-
sity. Pitt's entrance to the Newcastle ministry (June,
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXPANSION. 29
1757) changed all this. For the first time the colonies
found a man who showed a sympathy with them and a
willingness to use them. Their legislatures were sum-
moned into counsel as to the conduct of the war ; and
their alacrity in response was an augury of a change in
its fortune. Incompetent officers were weeded out, with
little regard to family or court influence. The whole
force of the colonies was gathered up, and in 1758
was launched at the French. All western New York was
cleared of the enemy at a blow ; Fort Du Quesne was
taken and renamed Fort Pitt ; Louisburgh, which had
been restored to France at Aix-la-Chapelle, was again
taken ; and the only failure of the year was the dreadful
butchery of the English in assaulting the walls of Ticon-
deroga. Louisburgh made an excellent point of attack
against Quebec, and Montcalm was forced to draw off
nearly all his troops elsewhere for the defence of his
principal post. The year 1759 was therefore begun by
the capture of Ticonderoga and almost all the French
posts within the present United States, and was crowned
by Wolfe's capture of the towering walls of Quebec. In
1760, while George II. lay dying, the conquest of Canada
was completed, and the dream of a great French empire
in JSTorth America disappeared forever.
32. The war continued through the first three years
of George III., and the colonies took part in the capture of
Havana after Spain had entered the struggle
as an ally of France. The peace of Paris,
which put an end to the war, restored Havana to Spain,
in exchange for Florida, which now became English.
France retired from North America, giving to Spain all
her claims west of the Mississippi and that small portion
east of the Mississippi which surrounds New Orleans,
30 THE UNITED STATES.
and to England the remainder of the continent east of
the Mississippi. Spain retained for her territory the
name of Louisiana, originally given by the French. The
rest of the continent was now " the English colonies of
North America."
33. It is evident now that the French and Indian war
was the prelude to the American revolution. It trained
the officers and men for the final struggle. It released
the colonies from the pressure of the French in Canada
so suddenly that the consciousness of their own strength
came at the same instant with the removal of the ancient
barrier to it. It united the colonies for the first time ;
few things are more significant of the development of
the colonies than the outburst of plans for colonial union
between 1748 and 1755, the most promising, though it
finally failed, being that of Franklin (1754) at the
Albany conference of Indian commissioners from the
various colonies. The practical union of the colonies,
however, was so evident that it might have been foreseen
that they would now unite instinctively against any com-
mon enemy, even the mother country.
34. The war, too, while it obtained its main object in
the view of the colonies — an unlimited western expan-
The conquered siou — brouglit tlic SGcds of Gumity bctwecn
territory, them aud thc crown. The claims of the
English on the continent, as has been said, were based
on the voyages of the Cabots. Under them the crown
had granted in the charters of Massachusetts, Connec-
ticut, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia
a western extension at first to the Pacific Ocean and
finally to the Mississippi. This was what the colonies
had fought for; and yet at the end of the Avar (1763)
a royal proclamation was issued forbidding present land
THE STRUGGLE FOR EXPANSION. 31
sales west of the Alleghanies and practically reserving
the conquered territory as a crown domain. In this, if
in nothing else, lay the seeds of the coming revolution,
as it afterwards almost disrupted the rising Union. The
war had welded the thirteen colonies into one people,
though they hardly dreamed of it yet; they had an
underlying consciousness that this western territory be-
longed to the new people, not to the crown or to the sep-
arate colonies which had charter claims to it ; and they
would have resisted the claims of the crown as promptly
as they afterwards resisted the claims of the individual
colonies.
35. Finally, the war broke the feeling of dependence
on the mother country. Poorly armed, equipped, and dis-
ciplined, the colonial or " provincial " troops Effects of the
had certainly shown fighting qualities of no ^^^•
mean order. Colonists would not have been disposed,
under any circumstances, to underrate the military qual-
ities of their own men, but their self-glorification found
a larger material because of the frequently poor quality
of the officers who were sent through family and court
influence to represent Great Britain in the colonies.
The bitter words in which Junius refers to British mili-
tary organization in after years were certainly even more
applicable in 1750 ; and the incompetency of many of
the British officers is almost incomprehensible. Its
effects were increased by an utter indifference to the
advice of colonial leaders which, in a new and unknown
country, was certain to place British soldiers again and
again in positions where they appeared to great disad-
vantage alongside of their colonial allies or rivals. The
provincial who had stood his ground, firing from behind
trees and stumps, while the regulars ran past him in
32 THE UNITED STATES.
headlong retreat, came home with a sense of his own
innate superiority which was sure to bring its results.
Braddock's defeat was the prologue to Bunker Hill. The
results were strengthened by the fact that most of the
war was fought either in New England, the most demo-
cratic of the colonies, or by New England men. Their
leaders had always been sought for by annual popu-
lar elections and re-elections, the promotion of approved
men, and the retention of men of poorer quality in lower
grades of office. To them the aristocratic influences
which gave place and power to such men as Loudoun
and " Mrs. Nabbycrombie " were simply ridiculous, and
marked only an essential difference between themselves
and their English brethren which was to the disadvan-
tage of the latter, even though it occasionally evolved a
man like Howe or Pitt. Taking all the influences to-
gether, it is plain that the Erench and Indian war not
only brought into being a tangible union of the colonies,
but broke many of the cords which had held the colonies
to the mother country.
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 33
III.
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNIOK
1763-75.
36. It is generally believed that the abandonment of
North America by France was the result of profound
policy, — that she foresaw that her retirement would be
followed by the independence of the English colonies,
and that Great Britain's temporary aggrandizement
would result in a more profound abasement. Vergennes
and Choiseul both stated the case in just this way in
1763; and yet it may be doubted whether this was not
rather an excuse for yielding to necessity than a politi-
cal motive. At all events, it is certain that the peace,
even with its release of the colonies from French pres-
sure, was not enough to secure colonial union. For this
it was necessary that the home Government should go
on and release the colonists from their controlling feeling
that they were rather Englishmen than Americans.
37. This feeling was not an easy one to eradicate, for
it was based in blood, training, and sympathies of every
nature. It would not have been easy to dis- ^ ,. ,
•^^ English sym-
tinguish the American from the Englishman ; pathies of the
it would, indeed, have been less easy than
now, when the full effects of a great stream of immigra-
tion have begun to appear. American portraits of the
time §]aow typical English faces. Wherever life was
34 THE UNITED STATES.
relieved of the privations involved in colonial struggle,
tlie person at once reverted to the type which was then
the result of corresponding conditions in England. The
traditions of American officers were English ; their meth-
ods were English; even the attitude which they took
towards the private soldiers of their armies was that
which was characteristic of the English officer of the
time. In the South the men who led and formed public
opinion had almost all been trained in England and were
ingrained with English sympathies and even prejudices.
In the North the acute general intellect had long ago
settled upon the '^ common rights of Englishmen " as the
bulwark behind which they could best resist any attempt
on their liberties. The pride of the colonists in their
position as Englishmen found a medium of expression
in enthusiasm for " the young king " ; and it would be
hard to imagine a more loyal appendage of the crown
than its English colonies in North America in 1760.
38. Unfortunately, the peace of Paris did not result
merely in freeing the colonies from dependence on the
Change of Eng- mother couutry ; it had the more important
lish policy, effect of freeing the mother country from
fear of France, and of thus encouraging it to open a
controversy with the colonies which had not been ven-
tured on before. Quebec had hardly fallen and given
the home Government promise of success when the work
was begun (1761). The Board of Trade began to revive
those regulations of colonial trade which had been prac-
tically obsolete in New England ; and its customs officers
applied to the Massachusetts courts for " writs of assist-
ance " to enable them to enforce the regulations. Instant
resistance Avas offered to the attempt to burden the
colonies with these writs, which governed all men^ were
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 35
returnable nowhere, gave the officers absolute power, and
opened every man's house and property to their entrance.
The argument of the crown advocates based the power
of issuing such writs on parliament's extension of the
English revenue system to the colonies, backed by a
statute of Charles II. permitting writs of assistance ; to
refuse to grant the writs was therefore to impeach the
power of parliament to legislate for the colonies. The
counter-argument of James Otis was the key-note of the
revolution. It declared in terms that no Act of parlia-
ment could establish such a writ, that it would be a
nullity even if it were expressed in the very terms which
the customs officers claimed, and that " an Act of parlia=
ment against the constitution was void."
39. Perhaps Otis meant by " the constitution " merely
the fundamental relations between the mother country
and the colonies, for this claim was the first ^, ^ .. ,
' _ _ The English
step on the way to the final irreconcilabletheory of colonial
difference as to these relations. The English ^'^^^^"
theory of the connection had been completely put into
shape by 1760, with very little objection from the colon-
ists, whose attention had not yet been strongly drawn to
the subject. It held that even the two charter colonies,
and a fortiori still more such a royal province as New
York, were merely corporations, erected by the king, but
subject to all the English laws relating to such corpora-
tions. The king was their visitor, to inquire into and
correct their misbehaviors ; his courts, on quo warranto,
could dissolve them ; and parliament had the same om-
nipotent power over them which it had over any other
civil corporation, — to check, amend, punish^ or dissolve
them. These propositions must have seemed unquestion-
able to the English legal mind in 1763. Their weak
36 THE UNITED STATES.
point, the assumption that parliament had power to con-
trol a corporation extra quatuor maria, had been covered
by a new development of the English theory during the
century. Parliament, originally a merely English body,
had grown in its powers and claims until now the common
use of the phrase " imperial parliament " connoted claims
to which the "four seas" were no longer a limitation, in
law or fact. Parliament was to give the law to the whole
empire. Hitherto this had been developed as a purely
legal theory ; it was now first attempted to be put into
practice when the enforcement of the Navigation Acts
was begun in 1761. The first objections offered by the
colonists were easily shown to be illogical and incon-
sistent with this legal theory of the relations between
the home country and the colonies, but this only drove
the colonists higher, step by step, in their objections, —
from objections to taxation by parliament into objections
to legislation by parliament, — until they had developed,
about 1775, a theory of their own, logical enough in itself,
but so inconsistent with the English theory that war was
the consequence of their collision.
40. Passing over the intermediate steps, the form
which the colonial theory finally took amounted to this.
The colonists' Thc iutroductiou of the idea of an "imperial
theory. parliament" was itself a revolution, which
could not bind the colonists, or change the conditions
under which they had settled the new country. Their
relations, originally and properly, had been with the
crown alone, and they had had nothing to do with parlia-
ment. The crown had seen fit to constitute new domin-
ions for itself beyond the seas, with forms of government
which were irrepealable compacts between it and the peo-
ple whom it had thus induced to settle the new territory,
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 37
and not mere civil corporations. It would follow, then,
that the king was no longer king merely of Great Britain
and Ireland ; he had at least thirteen kingdoms beyond
seas, and a parliament in each of them. For the British
parliament to interfere with the special concerns of
Massachusetts was as flagrant a wrong as it would have
been for the parliament of Massachusetts to interfere
with the affairs of Great Britain; and Massachusetts
had a right to expect her king to protect her from such
a wrong. The subject of Massachusetts knew the king
only as king of Massachusetts, and the parliament of
Great Britain not at all. It needed many years of suc-
cessful but suicidal logic on the part of their opponents
to force the Americans to this point ; they even continued
to petition parliament until 1774; but after that time
they were no further inconsistent, and held that the king
was the only bond of union between the parts of the
empire. When he wanted money from his American
dominions, he was to get it, as he had always got it, by
applying to the assembly of the colony, through the
governor, for a grant. In the new seats of the race, as
in the old, an Englishman was to be taxed only by his
own representatives. In other words, each of the English
colonies claimed, in its own field and for its own citizens,
the exact principles of " English liberty " which had been
established in England as the relations of the English
subject to the crown. Each colony was to be governed
by its own laws, just as in Jersey and Guernsey, in
Scotland before the Union, or in Hanover in 1763, with
appeal to the king in council, not to English courts or to
the House of Lords. For the British parliament, or still
more the British citizen, to talk of "our sovereignty"
over the colonies was a derogation from the king's sov-
38 THE UNITED STATES,
ereignty, the only sovereignty wMch the colonies knew.
"I am quite sick of ^our sovereignty,'" wrote Franklin
in 1769. The case of the colonies was evidently that of
Ireland also ; and Franklin notes the fact that several
members of colonial assemblies had been admitted to the
privileges of the Irish parliament, on the ground that
they were members of " American parliaments." To this
statement of their case the Americans adhered with pro-
gressive closeness from 1763 until the end. In their final
Declaration of Independence it will be found that it is a
declaration of their independence of the king only ; they
do not then admit that the British parliament had ever
had any authority over them ; and that body is only
mentioned in one place, in [one of the counts of the
indictment of the king, for having given his assent to
certain " acts of pretended legislation," passed by " a
jurisdiction foreign to our constitutions and unacknowl-
edged by our laws," that is to say, by the British parlia-
ment.
41. Two irreconcilable theories were thus presented.
Between them were two courses, either of which the
Possible com- colonics wcrc willing to accept. Under their
promises, theory there was no "imperial parliament."
They were willing to have one constituted, even if it
were only a development of the British parliament
through admission of colonial representatives ; but the
time for this passed before the parties could debate it.
On the other hand, the colonies were willing to abandon
to the wealthier British parliament, which sustained so
much larger a proportion of the cost of the standing
army and navy, the privilege of regulating external trade
for the general good. So late as 1774 the Continental
Congress, while maintaining the sole right of the colonial
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 39
assemblies to levy internal taxation and make local laws,
declared their willingness to yield to the British parlia-
ment the power to make such regulations of external
trade as were bona Jide meant to benefit trade, and not
to raise a revenue from Americans without their own
consent. This solution could have been only temporary
at best, and war cut off any discussion of it.
42, The work of quiet revolution was begun in March,
1763, in the closing hours of the Bute ministry, Charles
Townshend being first lord of trade and administrator of
the colonies. It was decided to make a point of having
all the American judges and other officials hold office dur-
ing the king's pleasure, and to make their salaries inde-
pendent of the colonial assemblies. The army estimates
were increased by an American standing force of twenty
regiments, to be paid for by Great Britain for the first
year, and thereafter out of a revenue to be raised in
America by Act of parliament. Bute's purposes were
political, — the diminution of democracy in America. The
Wilkes uproar drove him out of power before he could
develop his plans ; but his successor, Grenville, followed
them out for financial reasons, and in February, 1765, the
Stamp Act " was passed through both Houses
with less opposition than a turnpike bill." ^ amp c .
43. For the past two years the colonists had had other
things to think of. Under Grenville the Acts in restraint
of colonial trade (§§ 20, 21), which had been The Navigation
allowed to become practically obsolete, were '-^'^^•
put into force with unsparing rigor. The numbers of
the customs officers were increased; their duties were
more plainly declared ; naval officers were encouraged to
take the oaths of customs officers and share in the plun-
der of the commerce which had grown up between Amer-
40 THE UNITED STATES.
ica and the West Indian Islands and other parts of the
world. Search was constant; confiscation usually fol-
lowed search ; and appeal was even more costly than
confiscation. In the confusion arising from the efforts
of American commerce to escape its new enemies, it was
not wonderful that other questions were allowed to go
by default. But the mutterings of resistance were heard.
The Massachusetts assembly protested against any
schemes to create a standing army in America, to make
officers independent of the assemblies, or to raise a reve-
nue without consent of the assemblies, and appointed a
committee to secure the united action of all the colonies.
This was the first movement in the struggle for union.
Its importance was hidden from the ministry by the offi-
cial class in the colonies, whose members — the governors,
judges, and other crown officials — continued to urge a
persistence in the new policy, and to represent the
Adamses, Otis, and the other colonial leaders as animated
by a perverse desire to destroy the unity of the empire.
44. The revenue to be raised by the Stamp Act was to
come from the sale of stamps and stamped paper for
marriage licenses, commercial transactions, suits at law,
transfers of real estate, inheritances, publications, and
some minor sources of revenue. With it was another
startling provision, — a command to the colonial assem-
blies to furnish the royal troops in America with fuel, can-
dles, vinegar, bedding, cooking utensils, and potables, and
permission to billet the troops in inns, alehouses, barns,
and vacant houses. The colonies were thus to be taxed
without their consent ; the revenue derived therefrom was
to be devoted to the support of a standing army; and
that army was in turn to be used for the maintenance of
the scheme of taxation. Yet no one in England seems to
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 41
have dreamed of American resistance to it ; and Gren-
ville was able to say in 1770 that he "did not foresee the
opposition to the measure, and would have staked his life
for obedience."
45. The news of the passage of the Stamp Act caused
all America to hum with the signs of resistance, but
forcible resistance was at first repudiated Resistance to
everywhere. It took the shape, really more ^^^ ^^^^p ^^^•
significant, of declarations by the colonial assemblies,
the lower or popular houses of the legislatures. The
Virginia assembly, under the lead of Patrick Henry and
the younger members, took the first step (May, 1765),
by a declaration of colonial rights covering the right of
each colony to make its own laws and impose and expend
its own taxation. The Massachusetts assembly followed
with the formal proposal of an American Congress, to be
composed of representatives of all the colonies. South
Carolina seconded the call ; and the first step on the road
to union was taken.
46. Outside of these formal steps there were signs of
a less formal popular resistance. Even peaceable resis-
tance was pro tanto a suspension of royal and parliamen-
tary authority in the colonies ; and it was probably in-
evitable that the colonial assemblies should succeed to
the power during the interregnum before the organization
of a real national power. But a temporary chaos was as
inevitable ; and the form it took was the formation, par-
ticularly in the North, of popular organizations known
as "Sons of Liberty," the name being taken "Sonsof Lib-
from a chance allusion in one of Barre's ^"^y-"
speeches in the House of Commons. These, backed fre-
quently by the town organizations, forced the stamp-ofii-
cers to resign, and destroyed the stamps wherever they
42 THE UNITED STATES.
could be found. The Connecticut stamp-ofEcer, as lie
rode into Hartford on liis white horse to deposit his resig-
nation, with a thousand armed farmers riding after him,
said that he felt " like death on the pale horse, with all
hell following him." Newspapers and pamphlets rang
every possible change on Coke's dictum that " an Act ol
parliament contrary to Magna Charta was void," and with
warnings to stamp-officers that they would be considered
enemies to the liberties of America if they attempted to
carry out their duties. When the day broke on which the
Act was to go into operation (ISTovember 1, 1765) America
had neither stamps nor stamp-officers with which to fulfil
its provisions.
47. The proposed Congress, commonly called the
'^ Stamp-Act Congress," met at New York (October 7,
stamp-Act Con- 1765), — Ncw Hampshire, Virginia, North Car-
gress. olina, and Georgia being acquiescent but not
represented. It petitioned the king, the House of Com-
mons, and the House of Lords to recognize fully "the
several g6vernments formed in the said colonies, with
full powers of legislation, agreeably to the principles of
the English constitution." It also put forth a declara-
tion of colonial rights, acknowledging allegiance to the
crown, and claiming " all the inherent rights and privi-
leges of natural-born subjects within the kingdom of
Great Britain," including the right of petition, of trial by
jury, of taxation by representatives, and of granting sup-
plies to the crown, and protesting against the Stamp Act
and the various Acts in restraint of trade. The action
of this congress was thus purely declaratory ; there was
no attempt to legislate ; and the importance of the meet-
ing was in its demonstration of the possibility of union
and of one road to it.
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 43
48. In the meantime the Grenville ministry had fallen
(July, 1765), and the Eockingham ministry (March, 1766)
repealed the Stamp Act. The repeal was Repeal of the
supported by Pitt, and Whigs who agreed stamp Act.
with him, on the distinction that taxation by parlia-
ment without colonial representation was in violation
of the essential principles of the British constitution, but
that the power of parliament to legislate in every other
point for all parts of the empire must be maintained
(§ 21). Nevertheless, the repeal was preceded by a dec-
laration of the power " of the king in parliament to bind
the colonies and people of America in all cases what-
soever."
49. The colonists received the repeal with an outburst
of rejoicing loyalty. They cared little for Pitt's distinc-
tion of powers, or even for the declaratory Act : it seemed
to them merely the honors of war with which the min-
istry was to be allowed to retire. It really meant much
more. The ruling interest in the home Government, dis-
ordered for the moment by its sudden discovery of the
strength and union of the colonies, had drawn back, but
not forever. All through the year an undercurrent of
irritation against the colonies is evident ; and, when
(June, 1767) Townshend, the chancellor of Townshend's
the exchequer, had wrested the lead from the ^'^^^•
other members of the Grafton ministry, he passed
through both Houses the bill for taxing imports into the
colonies, to go into effect on 20th November following.
It laid duties on glass, paper, painters' colors, lead and
tea. As the proceeds were for the exchequer, they were
to be distributed by the crown ; and there was no secret
that the design was to provide salaries for the crown
servants in North America. About the same time other
44 THE UNITED STATES.
Acts established a board of customs at Boston, legalized
the " writs of assistance," and suspended the New York
assembly until it should obey the Billeting Act. Town-
shend died soon after, leaving his system as a legacy to
his successor. Lord North.
50. The New York assembly granted the necessary
money, said nothing as to its use, and escaped further
molestation. Beyond this the Acts accomplished noth-
ing. Their advocates had urged that the colonies ad-
mitted the power of parliament to control external
commerce, and that the new taxes were an exercise of
such control. If they desired a purely technical triumph
they had it, for their logic was sound, and the taxes
remained on the statute-book. But, as the colonies
Non-importation ceased to import the taxed articles, by popu-
agreement. jg^j, agreement and enforcement, the taxes
amounted to little. The irritations caused by the en-
forcement of the Navigation Act, only increased in bit-
terness ; and the official class in the colonies, on whom
must forever rest the responsibility for nine-tenths of
the difficulties which followed, lost no chance of rep-
resenting every pamphlet, newspaper letter, or public
meeting as incipient rebellion. A popular outburst in
Boston (June, 1768) following the seizure of John Han-
cock's sloop " Liberty," was thus used to give that town
an unenviable reputation for disorder and violence.
Colonial officials everywhere openly or secretly urged
the strongest measures ; and all the while the colonists^
with the cautious tenacity of their race, were acting so
guardedly that the British attorney-general was com-
pelled to say, " Look into the papers and see how well
these Americans are versed in the crown law; I doubt
whether they have been guilty of an overt act of treason,
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 45
but I am sure they have come within a hair's-breadth
of it."
51. The colonial officials, hoping for salaries inde-
pendent of the assemblies, began to show a disposition
to govern without those bodies. When the Massachu-
setts assembly refused by a large vote to withdraw its
circular letter to the other assemblies urging united peti-
tion to the king alone, as an umpire between themselves
and the British parliament, for redress of grievances, the
assembly was prorogued, and did not reassemble for a
year. As a gentle hint of a possible mode of re-estab-
lishing popular government, delegates from the towns
met in convention at Boston (September, 1768), renewed
the protests against the Acts of the ministry, and pro-
vided for the maintenance of public order. In the fol-
lowing December and January parliament passed a vote
of censure on this proceeding, and advised that those
who had taken part in it should be sent to England for
trial on the charge of treason. This was a new grievance
for the assemblies. They passed remonstrances against
any attempt to send Americans beyond seas for trial, as
a violation of the citizen's right to trial by a jury from
the vicinage; and their governors at once prorogued
them. Civil government in the colonies, under its origi-
nal constitution, was evidently in sore straits.
52. In September, 1768, two British regiments which
the colonial officials had succeeded in obtaining arrived
at Boston. Instead of a rebellious population Difficulties at
they found their most formidable opponents Boston.
in minute law points which were made to beset them at
every turn. The Billeting Act required the ordinary
barracks to be filled first : the council would assign no
quarters in town until the barracks outside were filled.
46 THE UNITED STATES.
The assembly was not in session to authorize anything
further, and the governor did not dare to summon it.
The troops, who had marched into the town as into a
captured place, with sixteen rounds of ammunition per
man, were presently without a place in which to cook
their dinners, until their commander hired houses out of
the army chest. It was natural that he should denounce
" this country where every man studies law." Exasper-
ating and exasperated, the troops lived on in Boston until
(March, 1770) a street brawl between soldiers and citizens
resulted in the death of five of the latter and the injury
of six more. Still the town kept its temper. The cap-
tain who had given the order to fire was seized by the
civil authorities, subjected to the ordinary trial for mur-
der, defended by John Adams and Quincy, two Massa-
chusetts leaders, at the hazard of their own popularity,
and acquitted for lack of evidence. But while according
a fair trial to the soldiers, the colonial leaders at last
represented so plainly to the crown officials the immi-
nence of an outbreak that the troops were removed from
the town to a fort in the harbor.
53. The most significant point in the history of the
four years 1770-73 is the manner in which the ordi-
The colonial ii^ry colouial governments continued to go to
governments, pieccs. Whcu thc asscmblics met they would
do nothing but denounce the Acts of the ministry ; when
they were prorogued the colony was left without any
government for which there was popular respect. This
was about the state of affairs which the crown officials
had desired ; but now that it had come, they were not at
all prompt in their use of it. Divorced from regular
government the people put out still stronger efforts to
enforce the non-importation agreements which had kept
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 47
down the revenues from the tax-laws of 1767. About
1773 a further development appeared. As soon as the
assemblies met for their annual sessions, and before
the governors conld find excuse for proroguing them,
they appointed '^committees of correspondence," to main-
tain unity of action with the other colonies. Thus, even
after prorogation, there was still in existence for the
rest of the year a semi-ofiicial representation of the
colony. This was nearly the last step on the way to
colonial union.
54. The whites had already crossed the Alleghanies.
In 1768 parties from North Carolina entered Tennessee ;
and in 1769 Boone and a party of Virgin- westem settie-
ians entered Kentucky. The settlement of "'^"^•
Tennessee was hastened by difficulties with Tryon, the
governor of North Carolina. Tryon was one of the
worst of the crown officials ; and his government had
been a scandal, even for those times. The people, denied
justice and defrauded of legislative power, rose in hasty
insurrection and were defeated. Tryon used his victory
so savagely as to drive an increasing stream of settlers
over the mountains into Tennessee. The centres of
western settlement, however, were but few. There was
one at Pittsburgh, another at Detroit, another near the
Illinois-Indiana boundary, another in Kentucky, another
near the present city of Nashville, Tennessee ; but none
of these, except, perhaps, Detroit, was more than a hunt-
ing or trading camp. Some efforts had been made to
erect crown colonies, or to settle grants to companies, in
the western territory, but they came to nothing. The
settlements still clung to the coast.
55. In April, 1770, encouraged by some symptoms of
a failure of the non-importation agreements, the ministry
48 THE UNITED STATES.
had taken off all the taxes of 1767, retaining only that
upon tea, — threepence per pound. The general popular
agreement was still strong enough to prevent
the importation of this single luxury ; and it
was found in 1772 that the tax produced but about £80
a year, at an expense of two or three hundred thousand
for collection. Besides, the East India Company had
been accumulating a stock of teas, in anticipation of an
American market, of which the tea tax had deprived it.
In May, 1773, the ministry took a fresh step : the tax
was to be retained, but the Company was to be allowed
a drawback of the entire duty, — so that the colonists,
while really paying the tax and yielding the underlying
principle, would get their tea cheaper than any other
people. The first cargoes of tea under the new regular
tions were ordered home again by popular meetings in
the American ports, and their captains generally obeyed.
At Boston the governor refused to clear the vessels for
Europe ; and, after prolonged discussion, some fifty per-
sons, disguised as Indians, went on board the vessels and
threw the tea into the harbor in the presence of a great
crowd of lookers-on (December 16, 1773).
bO). It was not possible that the term American should
suddenly supplant that of Englishman ; but the succes-
Thenew slvc stcps by which the change was accom-
nationai feeling. pUglied aie easily perceptibleo Using one of
the old English political phrases the supporters of colo-
nial privileges had begun about 1768 to adopt the name
of "American Whigs." Its increasing substitution for
that of Englishmen was significant. Within a few years
the terms "continental," or "the continent," began to
take on a new meaning, referring to a union of the colo-
nies at which men hardly ventured to hint clearly. It
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 49
meant a good deal, then, wlien men said very truly that
"the whole continent " applauded the "Boston tea-party.''
It was the first spoken word of the new national spirit.
Nothing was less understood in England ; the outbreak
left America in general, and Boston in particular, hardly
a friend there. The burning of the revenue schooner
" Gaspee " in Narragansett Bay (June, 1772) had seemed
to the ministry almost an act of overt rebellion ; this was
rebellion itself.
57. In March and April, 1774, on receipt of full intelli-
gence of the proceedings at Boston, the ministry passed a
series of Acts which made open struggle only jhe " intoiera-
a question of time. The Boston Port Act bieActs."
shut up the town of Boston against all commerce until
the destroyed tea was paid for and the town returned to
loyalty. The Massachusetts Act changed the charter of
that colony: the crown was now to appoint governor,
council, and sheriffs ; the sheriffs were to select juries ;
and town meetings, unless by permission of the governor,
were forbidden. Gage, the British commander-in-chief
in the colonies, was made governor under the Act, and
four regiments were given him as a support. Any magis-
trates, officers, or soldiers indicted under colonial laws
were to be sent for trial to Nova Scotia or Great Britain.
The billeting of soldiers in the town of Boston was legal-
ized. The Quebec Act extended the boundaries of the
province of Canada over the whole territory lying north
of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi. Here the minis-
try rested.
58. The news of these Acts of parliament crystallized
every element of union in the colonies. The
attack on the charter of Massachusetts Bay
was undoubtedly the most effective. The charters of
50 THE UNITED STATES.
Connecticut and Eliode Island were the freest of the
colonies ; but that of Massachusetts was certainly next
to them. If Massachusetts was not safe against such an
attack, no colony was safe. The ministry had forced an
issue on the very point on which the colonial and impe-
rial theories were irreconcilable. The Boston Port Act
furnished a grievance so concrete as to obviate the neces-
sity of much argument on other points. The Quebec
Act, with its attempt to cut off the northern colonies
from the western expansion to which they all looked
hopefully, was bad enough in itself, but it brought up
with it the element of religious suspicion. For years
the distinctively Puritan element had dreaded an attempt
to establish the Church of England in the colonies ; and
the inclination of American Episcopalians to look to the
home government for relief against unjust local restric-
tions had not helped to decrease the feeling. The Puri-
tan element could see little real difference between Epis-
copacy and Catholicism : and, when it was found that the
Quebec Act practically established the Eoman Catholic
system in the new territory, the old dread revived to give
the agitation a hidden but strong motive.
59. The necessity of another Congress was universally
felt. On the suggestion of Virginia and the call of Mas-
First Continen- sachusetts, it met at Philadelphia (September
tai Congress. 5^ 1774) . AH the coloulcs but Georgia were
represented ; and Georgia was so certainly in sympathy
with the meeting that this is commonly known as the
First Continental Congress, the first really national
body in American history. Its action was still mainly
deliberative. It adopted addresses to the king, and to
the people of the colonies, of Quebec, and of Great
Britain, and passed a declaration of colonial rights, sum-
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 51
ming up the various Acts of parliament which were
held to be in violation of these rights. But its tone was
changed, though its language was still studiously con-
trolled and dignified. It was significant that, for the
first time, the two Houses of Parliament were ignored in
the matter of petitioning : it was at last seen to be an
awkward concession even to memorialize parliament.
The tone of a sovereign about to take his seat is per-
ceptible in the letter of Congress to the colonies which
had not yet sent delegates. And at least two steps were
taken which, if not an assumption of sovereign powers,
were evidently on the road to it. The first was the prep-
aration of Articles of Association, to be signed by the
people everywhere, and to be enforced by committees of
safety chosen by the people of cities and towns. These
articles bound the signers to stop the importation of all
goods from, and the exportation of all goods to, Great
Britain and Ireland, the use of such goods, and the
slave trade. The manner of the enforcement of the arti-
cles was evidently an incipient suspension of all authority
proceeding from the mother country and the substitution
of a general popular authority for it. The other step
was a resolution, adopted October 8, as follows: — "That
this Congress approve the opposition of the
inhabitants of the Massachusetts Bay to the
execution of the late Acts of parliament ; and if the
same shall be attempted to be carried into execution hy
force, in such case all America ought to support them in
their opposition." This was simply an ultimatum : in the
opinion of Congress, the ministry could take no further
step except that of attempting to enforce its Acts, and
the colonies would resist such an attempt as an act of
war. Before the next Congress met the conditions had
52 THE UNITED STATES.
been fulfilled. The agents of the ministry had applied
force ; Massachusetts had resisted by force ; and the new
Congress found itself the representative of a nation at
war, still acknowledging the king, but resisting the oper-
ations of his armies. Having summoned a new Congress
to meet at Philadelphia on the 10th of May following,
and having cleared the way for its action, the Eirst Con-
tinental Congress adjourned.
60. It is an unpleasant task to record the successive
steps by which two peoples, so exactly similar to one
another in every characteristic, so far removed from one
another, and so ignorant of one another's feelings, ad-
vanced alternately to a point where open collision was
inevitable. From the standpoint of "no taxation with-
out representation," which Pitt and his school of Whigs
had approved, the colonists had now been driven by the
suicidal logic of their opponents to the far more consis-
tent position of " no legislation without representation,''
which the Pitt school had never been willing to grant,
and which was radically inconsistent with the British
" imperial " theory. Either the previous legislation of
parliament was to remain a dead letter, or it must be
executed by force ; and that meant war. Massachusetts
was already on the brink of that event. Gage, the new
governor, had refused to meet the assembly; he had forti-
fied himself in Boston, and was sending out spies as if
into hostile territory. All regular government was sus-
pended or remanded to the towns ; and the people were
organized into " minute men," pledged to move at a min-
ute's notice. The first hostile movement of Gage would
be the signal for the struggle. War, in fact, had come
to be a possibility in the thoughts of every one. The
new governor of Canada, Carleton, was sent out with in-
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 53
striictions to levy the people and Indians of that prov-
ince, in order that they might be marched against rebels
in any province of North America. Governor Tryon's
defeat of the insurgent people of North Carolina at the
Aiemance (§ 54) furnished a tempting precedent to Gov-
ernor Gage in Massachusetts. There was strong pressure
upon him to induce him to follow it. The king's speech
at the opening of parliament (November 29, 1774) spoke
of the prevalent "resistance and disobedience to the
law " in Massachusetts ; the ministry urged Gage to
arrest the colonial leaders, even though hostilities should
follow ; the two Houses of Parliament j^resented a joint
address to the king, declaring Massachusetts to be in
rebellion, and offering all the resources of the empire to
suppress the rebellion ; and the king, in reply, announced
his intention of acting as parliament wished.
61. The inevitable collision was narrowly escaped in
February, 1775. Gage sent a water expedition to Salem
to search for powder ; but the day was Sunday, Lexington and
and a conflict was prevented by the ministers. Concord.
Another expedition (April 19) was more momentous.
It set out for Concord, a little village some twenty miles
from Boston, to seize a stock of powder which was re-
ported to be gathered there. At daybreak the troops
marched into the village of Lexington, on their road.
They found some minute men who had been hastily
summoned, for intelligence had been sent out from
Boston that the expedition was coming. There was
a hurried order from an ofiicer that the militia should
disperse, then a volley from his men and a few answer-
ing shots, and the first blood of the American revolution
had been shed. The troops went on to Concord and
destroyed the stores there. But by this time the whole
54 THE UNITED STATES.
country was up. Messengers were riding in every direc-
tion, arousing the minute men ; and their mustering made
the return to Boston more dangerous than the advance
had been. When the troops began their return march
the continuous fire from fences, trees, and barns along
the route soon converted the retreat into a rout. The
opportune arrival of a rescuing party from Boston saved
the whole force from surrender, but the pursuit was kept
up until the expedition took refuge under the guns of
the war vessels at the water-side. The next morning the
isthmus which connected the town of Boston with the
mainland was blockaded ; the siege of Boston was formed ;
and the revolution had begun.
62. The news of Lexington and Concord fights set the
continent in a flame, but every feature of the outburst
showed the still thoroughly English characteristics of the
people. For nine long years they had been schooling
themselves to patience ; and, as their impatience became
more difficult to control, it was shown most strongly in
their increasingly scrupulous care to insist upon the letter
of the law. Even in the first open conflict the colonists
were careful to base their case on their legal right to use
" the king's highway " ; and Congress carefully collected
and xoublished depositions going to show that the troops
had violated this right and had fired first. There was
everything in the affairs of Lexington and Concord to
arouse an intense popular excitement : the mustering of
undisciplined farmers against regular troops, the stern
sense of duty which moved it, the presence and encourage-
ment of the ministers, the sudden desolation of homes
which had never known war before, were things which
stirred every pulse in the colonies when they were told.
But there was no need of waiting for such stories.
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 55
When the dam burst, the force which had been stored up
for nine years took everything away before it. The news
was hurried by express along the roads to the southward;
men left the plough in the furrow when they heard it,
and rode off to Boston ; town committees of safety col-
lected money and provisions and sent them to the same
point ; and before the end of the month the mainland
around Boston harbor was occupied by a shifting mass
of undisciplined half-armed soldiers, sufficient to keep
the British troops cooped up within the peninsula on
which the town was built.
63. The overturning of the royal governments in North
America followed rapidly, as the news of the fights at
Lexington and Concord spread abroad. In Popular
one colony after another the lower houses of governments.
the colonial legislatures, taking the name of " provincial
congresses," met and assumed the reins of government ;
the officers of militia and subordinate magistrates ac-
cepted commissions from them ; and the colonial officials,
to whose advice so much of the course of events had
been due, fled to England or to the nearest depot of
royal troops. On the day (May 10, 1775) when the
stronghold of Ticonderoga, the key of the gateway to
Canada, was taken by surprise by an American force
under Allen, giving the besiegers of Boston a welcome
supply of weapons and ammunition, the Sec- second conti-
ond Continental Congress met at Philadelphia. "^"^^' Congress.
It came, under new circumstances, to redeem the pledge
which its predecessor had given that all the colonies
would support Massachusetts in resisting force by force.
It was thus the representative of a united people, or
of nothing. The struggle for union had been so far
successful.
56 THE UNITED STATES.
64. This fact of union has colored the whole subse-
quent history of the country. The Articles of Associa-
tion had really preceded it by a substitution of general
popular government, however clumsy in form, for the
previously recognized governments ; in so far the author-
ity of the various colonies was also suspended, and a
general national organization took their place. It was
soon found that the colonial organizations had too much
innate strength to be got rid of in this summary fashion ;
they held their own, and, as soon as imminent danger
had disappeared, they succeeded in tearing so much
power from the Continental Congress as to endanger the
national existence itself. But, when the Second Conti-
nental Congress met, it met (as Von Hoist maintains) as
a purely revolutionary body, limited by no law, and by
nothing else but by its success in war and the support
which it was to receive from the people, without regard
to colony governments. With the energy and reckless-
ness of a French revolutionary body it might have
blotted out the distinctions between colonies, and estab-
lished a centralized government, to be modified in time
by circumstances. In fact, it took no such direction.
It began its course by recommendations to the new
colonial governments ; it relied on them for executive
acts ; and, as soon as the new colonies were fairly under
way, they seized on the power of naming and recalling
Failure of ^^^ dclcgatcs to the Congress. From that time
the first national the dccadence of the Congress was rapid; the
sys em. jiatioual idea became dimmer ; and the asser-
tions of complete sovereignty by the political units be^
came more pronounced. This failure of the Second
Congress to appropriate the universal national powers
which were within its grasp is responsible for two oppo-
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 57
site effects. On the one hand, it built up a basis for
the future assertion of the notion of State sovereignty,
necessarily including the right of secession. On the other,
it maintained the peculiar feature of the American Union,
its large State liberty, its dislike of centralization, and
its feeling that the national power is a valuable but
dangerous instrument of development. The effort to
find a compromisie between the two forces makes up the
record of subsequent national politics, ending in the
present assertion of the largest possible measure of
State rights, but under the guarantee of the national
power, not of the State's own sovereignty.
Qb. The conversion of the former colonies into
"States" followed hard upon the outbreak of the war
(§ 72). Since that time the States have jhe state sys-
really been the peculiar feature of the Ameri- ^^'^•
can system. The circumstances just mentioned put them
into a position in which they held all real powers of
government ; and they are still the residuary legatees of
all such powers as have not been taken from them by
the national power or by their State constitutions. In
1775 they differed very materially in their organization,
but there has been a constant tendency to approach a
general type, as States have adopted innovations which
have proved successful in other States. All have now
governors, legislatures of two houses, and State judicia-
ries. The governor, except in' a few States, has a limited
vote on legislation, and has a pardoning power. The
State legislature is supreme in all subjects relating to
the jurisdiction of the State, with two exceptions ; the
Constitution of the United States imposes certain limita-
tions on them. (§ 116), and there is an evident tendency
in the later State constitutions to prohibit the legisla*
58 THE UNITED STATES.
tures from '^ special legislation/' and to provide that,
in specified subjects, they shall pass only " general
laws," applicable to the whole State and all citizens
alike. With these exceptions, it is difficult to imagine
a more complete autonomy than is possessed by the
States of the American Union. The main restriction
upon their action is in its results upon their welfare.
They may even repudiate their debts, and there is no
power which can make them pay ; but, even in respect
to this, the results upon the credit of a repudiating
State have been enough to check others in any action of
the kind. They control the organization of the State
into counties, towns, and cities ; they touch the life and
interests of the citizen in a far larger degree than does
the Federal Government ; and, in many points, such as
that of taxation, their powers are co-ordinate with those
of the Federal Government, so that the two departments
of the American governmental system operate on the
same subjects. The admission of new States (§ 97) has
raised the number of the original thirteen States to
thirty-eight,^ and the powers of the new States are
exactly those of the old ones.
Q)Q>. The "force resolution '^ of the First Congress
(§ 59) shows that the national existence of the United
States, in a purely political sense, dates from the fulfil-
ment of the conditions of the force resolution — that is,
from the first shot fired at Lexington. From that
instant the fact of union was consummated in the suj^-
port given to Massachusetts by the other common-
wealths ; and George III. was king no longer of thirteen
1 The preliminary steps for the admission of four new States, how-
ever, were taken by Congress in February, 1889.
THE STRUGGLE FOR UNION. 59
separate kingdoms, but of one. The fact that he did
not recognize the union did not alter the fact of union ;
that was to be decided by events. The success of the
struggle for union gave the United States a date for the
political, as distinguished from the legal, existence of
the nation (April 19, 1775).
60 THE UNITED STATES.
IV.
THE STRUGGLE FOE, INDEPENDENCE.
1775-83.
67. The Second Congress adopted the " army " around
Boston as " the American continental army " ; rules
and articles of war were formulated for it ;
and Ward, Charles Lee (a British soldier
of fortune), Schuyler and Putnam were named as
major-generals, with eight brigadiers, and Gates as
adjutant-general. Union, though accomplished, was
still weak. Sectional interests, feelings, and prejudices
were strong ; and the efforts of the delegates to accom-
modate them had, as one result, the appearance of
Washington on the historical stage which he was to fill
so completely. He had been of special service on the
military committee of Congress ; and the Massachusetts
members — the Adamses and others — saw in him the
man whose appointment as commander-in-chief would be
most acceptable to all the sections, and would " cement
and secure the union of these colonies," as John Adams
wrote in a private letter. He was chosen unanimously,
and commissioned, and set out for Boston. But another
collision, the battle of Bunker Hill, had taken place on
the date of his commission (June 17).
68. In one of the irregular surgings of the colonial
force around Boston, it took possession of Breed's (now
known as Bunker ) Hill, some 75 feet high, commanding
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 61
Boston, and separated from it by a sheet of water. The
British of&cers might have landed men so as to take the
line of entrenchments in the rear, or might have raked it
from end to end from the water. They chose to send
2500 men over in boats, and charge straight up the hill.
The all-important question was whether the " embattled
farmers " within the works would stand fire.
Not a shot from the line of entrenchments re-
turned the scattering fire of the advancing column until
the latter was within a hundred feet ; then a sheet of flame
ran along the line, and, when the smoke cleared away,
the charging troops were retreating down the hill. The
officers moved the men again to the assault, with exactly
the same result. At the third assault the ammunition
of the farmers was exhausted ; but they retreated fight-
ing stubbornly with gun-stocks, and even with stones.
" The success," wrote Gage to the ministry, " has cost us
dear ; the trials we have had show the rebels are not the
despicable rabble too many have supposed them to be."
He had lost 1100 out of 2500 men. A serious Ameri-
can loss was that of Warren, a Boston leader of high
promise.
69. While Washington was endeavoring to form an
army out of the heterogeneous material around Boston,
another American force was attempting to
drive the British out of Canada. On the last
day of the year 1775, in an assault on Quebec, one of
the leaders, Montgomery, was killed, and another, Ben-
edict Arnold, was wounded. Shortly afterwards the
American force was driven back into the northern part
of New York, near the Canada line, where it held its
ground. Congress began in June the issue of bills of
credit, or "continental currency," as a substitute for
62 THE UNITED STATES.
taxation — a most unhappy step. The bills soon began
to depreciate. Congress insisted on holding them to be
legal tender ; but it had not seized, as it
aper currency, ^^^^-j^^ have douc, the power of taxatiou, in
order to provide for the redemption of the bills ; and its
recommendation to committees of safety to treat as ene-
mies of their country those who should refuse to receive
the bills at their face value, never accomplished its
object. Successive emissions of pajoer enabled Congress
to support the army for a few years, and even to begin
the organization of a navy. Privateers and public armed
vessels had been sent out by the several colonies ; the
first American fleet, of eight vessels, sailed in February,
1776, but its cruise accomplished little.
70. All this time. Congress had been protesting its
horror of the idea of independence; and the colonial
Drift towards cougrcsscs had instructed their delegates not
independence, ^q couutenancc auy such project. The last
petition to the king was adopted by Congress in July,
1775, and sent to London by the hands of Richard Penn.
It besought the king to consider the complaints of the
colonists, and to obtain the repeal of the Acts which
they had found intolerable. The news of the battle of
Bunker Hill had preceded Penn; the king refused to
answer the petition ; but by a proclamation (August 23,
1775) he announced the existence of open rebellion in
the colonies, and called on all good subjects to give any
information of those persons in Great Britain who were
aiding and abetting the rebellion. This was but the
first of a series of attacks on that strong sentiment in
Great Britain which felt the cause of the colonies to be
the old cause of English liberty. At the opening of the
struggle, this sentiment was intense : officers resigned
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 63
their commissions rather than serve in America ; the
great cities took open ground in favor of the colonies ;
and some of the English middle classes wore mourning
for the dead at Lexington. As the war increased in its
intensity, this sentiment necessarily decreased ; but,
even while parliament was supporting the war by votes
of more than two to one, the ministry was constantly
hampered by the notorious consciousness that the real
heart of England was not in it. Even when 25,000 men
were voted at the king's wish, provision had to be made
to obtain them from Germany. Privilege and officialism
were against the colonies ; the popular heart and con-
science were either ignorant or in favor of them.
71. But in America everything spoke of war. Howe,
who had succeeded G-age, passed a very bad winter. His
men were often short of supplies ; their quarters were
uncomfortable ; and their efforts to better their position
were a severe infliction on the inhabitants. Along the
coast the commanders of British ships acted everywhere
as if on the borders of an enemy's country ; Grloucester,
Bristol, Falmouth, and other defenceless towns were can-
nonaded ; and the flag of the king tended more and more
to appear that of an enemy. On the first day of the new
year the distinctive standard of the thirteen united col-
onies was raised at Washington's headquarters. It intro-
duced the stripes of the present flag, but retained the
crosses of St. George and St; Andrew on a blue ground in
the corner, the whole implying the surviving acknowledge
ment of the royal power, with the appearance of a new
nation. When independence had eliminated the royal
element, the crosses were replaced (1777) by stars, as at
present. Congress had been compelled to go so far in
national action as to threaten reprisals for the threats of
64 THE UNITED STATES.
special punishment by the ministry. The first step
towards the ultimate application for admission to the fam-
ily of nations was really taken in November, 1775, when
Franklin, Jay, and three other delegates, were appointed
a committee to maintain intercourse with friends of the
colonies " in Great Britain, Ireland, and elsewhere " ; the
main importance of the appointment was in the last two
words. The end of the year left independence in the air,
though hardly spoken of.
72. Thomas Paine turned the scale (January 9, 1776)
by the publication of his pamphlet Common Sense. His
argument was that independence was the only
consistent line to pursue ; that " it must come
to that some time or other " ; that it would only be more
difficult the more it was delayed ; and that independence
was the surest road to union. Written in simple language,
it was read everywhere ; and the open movement to in-
dependence dates from its publication. In the meantime
events were urging Congress on. Washington in March
seized and fortified Dorchester Heights, to the south of
Boston and commanding it. Before the British could
move upon the works, they had been made so strong that
Evacuation of the garrisou evacuated the place (March 17,
Boston. 1776), sailing away to Halifax on the fleet.
For the moment the British had hardly an organized force
within the thirteen colonies ; Charles Lee had just seized
New York city and harbor : and the ministry seemed not
only hostile, but impotent. The spirit of Congress rose
with success. It had already ordered (November 25,
1775), on receipt of news of instructions to British war-
vessels to attack American seaport towns " as in the case
of actual rebellion," that British war-vessels or transports
should be open to capture; now (March 23, 1776) it
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 65
declared all British vessels lawful prize. It then went
on (April 6) to open all American ports to the vessels of
all other nations than Great Britain, still forbidding the
slave trade. It had even opened communication with the
French court, which, using the name of a fictitious firm
in Paris, was shipping money, arms, and supplies to the
colonies. All these were acts of an independent power ;
and colony after colony, changing the colonial into State
forms of government, was instructing its delegates to vote
for independence. In May some of the colonies had
become too impatient to wait longer, for it was evident
that the king had finally ranged himself against the new
American nation. Virginia spoke in most emphatic tones 5
and one of her delegates, Eichard Henry Lee, moved a
resolution in Congress for independence, seconded by John
Adams (June 7, 1776). A committee to draw up a dec-
laration in conformity with the resolution was chosen,
consisting of Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams,
Franklin, Eoger Sherman of Connecticut, and Eobert E.
Livingston of Kew York ; but the resolution was not
adopted until July 2, as follows : — " Eesolved that these
united colonies are and of right ought to be free and
independent States ; that they are absolved from all alle-
giance to the British crown ; and that all political con-
nection between them and the state of Great Britain is
and ought to be totally dissolved."
73. Jefferson had come from Virginia with the repu-
tation of a very ready and able writer ; and the commit-
tee, by common consent, left the preparation Declaration of
of the first draft of the Declaration of Inde- independence.
pendence to him. He wrote it almost at one heat ; and,
though parts of it were rejected or modified by Congress,
the whole instrument, as it was adopted by that body
(jQ THE UNITED STATES.
(July 4, 1776), must stand as Jefferson's own work.
John Adams was its champion on the floor of Congress,
for Jefferson was not a public speaker, — and the coinci-
dence of the deaths of these two men, just fifty years
afterwards (July 4, 1826), was a remarkable one. The
language of the Declaration, like that of all the Ameri-
can state-papers of the time, was strong and direct.
Ignoring parliament, it took every act of oppression
which had been aimed at the colonies as the act and
deed of the king; it concluded that "a prince whose
character is thus marked by every act which may define
a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people " ; and
it announced the indej)endence of the United States in
the terms of the resolution already stated. The date of
its adoption is, by the decision of the Supreme Court,
the date of the legal existence of the United States in
matters of municipal law.
74. Meanwhile clouds were gathering about the young
republic. A British expedition was beaten off from
Charleston (June 28) ; but two days afterwards a
stronger force, under Howe, landed on Staten Island,
just below New York city. The ministry, abandoning
Attack on the ^^w England, had decided to transfer the
middle colonies, ^^j. to tlic middle colouics. Here was the
originally alien element among the colonies (§ 7), though
the ministry was disappointed in it ; here was the com-
mercial element, which had sometimes been willing to
prefer profit to patriotism ; above all, the Hudson gave
a safe path for British frigates, so that the British forces
might control at the same time the road into Canada and
the moat which should cut off New England from the
other colonies. Most of the reasons which made the
opening of the Mississippi a severe blow to the Confed-
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 67
eracy in 1863, applied to the capture of New York city
and the operations in the Hudson river in 1776.
75. Washington had hurried to New York city as
soon as Boston had surrendered, but his preparations
were not far advanced when Howe appeared (June 30).
He and his brother. Admiral Lord Howe, the commander
of the fleet, had high hopes of receiving the confidence
of both parties to the struggle, by reason of their hered-
itary connection with the crown and the liking of the
colonies for their elder brother, killed at Ticonderoga ;
and they brought conciliatory proposals and the consent
of the ministry to an unofficial exchange of prisoners.
The country was now committed to independence, and
in August, Howe began offensive operations. Washing-
ton's force numbered 27,000, about four-fifths of them
having never seen action; and about one-third of his
army had been placed on Long Island. Howe had
31,000 trained soldiers, largely Hessians ; and he de-
barked 20,000 of them on Long Island, beating Putnam,
the American commander there, and driving him into
Brooklyn (August 27). The British hesitated Battle of Long
to attack the American works there, so that '^'^"^•
Washington was able to draw off the defeated force,
and the British followed slowly to the New York side
of the river. Through September and October, Wash-
ington retreated northwards, fighting stubbornly, until
he reached the strong defensive positions where the
mountains begin to make a figure in the landscape north
of New York city. Here he faced about, and prepared
to give battle from behind fortifications. Again Howe
hesitated, and then turned back to occupy New York.
76. Howe was cut off from the water-way to Canada
by Washington's fortification of the highlands, but his
68 THE UNITED STATES.
lieutenant, Cornwallis, secured a lodgement by surprise on
the other side of the Hudson, and thus drew Washington
across the river to oppose him. Forced to retreat through
Washington's ^^w Jcrscy, pursucd by the British, Wash-
retreat. ingtou at Icast uscd up the month of Decern-
ber in the retreat. But affairs were in a desperate
plight. His army had been driven across the Delaware ;
the British held all New Jersey, and were only waiting
for the river to freeze over to " catch Washington and
end the war '^ ; Philadelphia was in a panic, and Con-
gress had taken refuge in Baltimore, leaving Washington
with almost dictatorial powers ; hosts of half-hearted
people were taking British protections and returning to
their allegiance ; and the time was one which ^' tried
men's souls." Washington's soul was proof against all
tests ; and in the midst of his discouragements he had
already planned that which was to be the turning-point
of the war. The advance post of the British was one of
Hessians, under Eahl, at Trenton, on the Delaware.
Battles of Tren- Scizlug all thc boats ou the river, and choos-
^°" ing the night of Christmas, on the probability
that the Hessians would be drunk, he crossed the river,
assaulted the town with the bayonet, and captured the
garrison. Taking his prisoners to Philadelphia, he re-
crossed the river on the last day of the year, and reoc-
cupied Trenton. Cornwallis brought almost all his
available forces towards that place; and Washington's
diminishing army was in greater danger than before.
Leaving his camp-fires burning, he abandoned
his position by night, swept around the sleep-
ing British forces, met, fought, and captured at Prince-
ton (January 3, 1777) a detachment on its march to
Trenton, and threatened the British base of supplies at
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 69
New Brunswick. It was only a threat ; but it served its
purpose of drawing Cornwallis off from Philadelphia.
77. New Jersey is crossed from south-west to north-
east by a spur of the Alleghanies. Thus far operations
had been confined to the flat country to the south;
Washington now swept on to the northern or mountain-
ous part, and the day after Princeton fixed his headquar-
ters at Morristown, where they really remained almost
all through the rest of the war. He was aided by the
unwillingness of the British to attack entrenchments.
His long line across New Jersey was everywhere strong ;
the British could now reach Philadelphia only by pass-
ing in front of his line and risking a flank attack ; and
they at once drew in their outposts to New Brunswick.
With the exception of the occupation of Newport by the
British, and attacks on minor outlying places, as Dan-
bury, there was a short breathing space.
78. Kalb, Kosciusko, Conway, and other foreign officers
were already serving in the American army; Pulaski,
Steuben, and others were soon to come. Some of the
minor foreign acquisitions of this sort were selfish,
conceited, and troublesome; the most unselfish and de-
voted was the young Marquis de la Fayette, who came
this year with a shipload of supplies as his gift to
the republic. Franklin made his appearance
at the French court (December 7, 1776) as
one of the American envoys, and soon took the lead in
negotiations. Shrewd, sensible, far-sighted, and prompt,
never missing or misusing an opportunity, he soon suc-
ceeded in committing the French Government, in all but
the name, as an ally of the United States ; and, though
his success with other European courts was small, he
opened the way for the general commercial treaties which
70 THE UNITED STATES.
followed the war. His unofficial influence was a more
important factor in his work. Carefully maintaining
the character of a plain American burgher, he seemed to
the French the veritable man of nature for whom they
had been longing. The pithy sense and homely wit
which had given force to his Poor HicJiard's Almanac
had impressed even his unemotional countrymen strongly ;
his new audience took them as almost inspired. He, and
his country with him, became the fashion ; and it became
easier for the Government to cover its own supplies to
the insurgents by an appearance of embarrassment in
dealing with the enthusiasm of its subjects. The foreign
aid, however, did the Americans a real harm. Congress,
relying upon it, grew more and more into the character
of a mere agent of the States for issuing paper and bor-
rowing money; and the taxing function, which should
have been forced upon it from the beginning, fell more
positively into the hands of the States. As the national
character of Congress dwindled, the State jealousies and
ambitions of its delegates increased; little cliques had
their favorite officers — Gates, Charles Lee, Conway,
or some other soldier of fortune; and Washington, ne-
glected and harassed by turns, must have found it diffi-
cult to face Howe with half his number of men, foil the
various competitors for his own position, and maintain
his invariably respectful tone towards Congress.
79. In July, 1777, Burgoyne, with an army of British,
Germans, and Indians, attempted the Hudson river route
Burgoyne's ex- ffom the uorth, and forced his way nearly to
pedition. Albany. The utter defeat of a detachment
at Bennington (August 16) by the farmers of Vermont
and New Hampshire under Stark, the atrocities of the
Indians before they deserted Burgoyne's standard, and
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 71
the end of the harvest brought abundant reinforcements
to Gates, whom Congress had put in command. He
gained the battle of Bemis Heights (October 1), and ten
days afterwards forced Burgoyne to surrender near Sara-
toga. The news of this success brought to Saratoga.
Franklin (February 6, 1778) the desire of his jreaty with
heart in a treaty of alliance, offensive and de- France.
fensive, between the United States and France, and this
was followed in the next month by war between Great
Britain and France and an ineffectual proposal for recon-
ciliation from Great Britain to the United States, cover-
ing colonial representation in parliament and everything
short of independence.
80. Meantime Howe had taken the water-route to
Philadelphia, by way of the ocean and Chesapeake Bay,
and had captured the city (September 25, capture of Phii-
1777) ; but Washington had at least made his adeiphia.
army capable of fighting two battles, those of Chad's
Ford on the Brandy wine (September 11) and German-
town in the outskirts of Philadelphia (October 4), both
stubbornly contested. Taking up winter-quarters at Valley
Forge, about twenty miles from Philadelphia,
he watched Howe vigilantly, and struggled ^ ^^ °'^^'
manfully with the responsibilities of supreme command,
which the fugitive Congress had again left to him, with
the misery and almost despair of his own men, and with
the final intrigues of those who now wished to supersede
him by the appointment of Gates. In June, 1778, the
news of the treaty with France, and of the departure of
a French fleet and army for America, compelled Clinton,
who had succeeded Howe, to set out for New York, in
order to reunite his two main armies. Washington broke
camp at once, followed him across New Jersey, and over-
72 THE UNITED STATES.
took tlie rear at Monmoutli, or Freehold (June 28). An
indecisive battle enabled the British to gain New York
Battle of city J WasMngton formed his line from Mor-
Monmouth. rigtown around the north of the city, so as to
be able to interpose between Clinton and Philadelphia or
New England ; and these positions were maintained
until the Yorktown campaign began in 1781. Beyond
skirmishes, there were no more important events in the
north, except some unsuccessful attempts to recover New-
port with French assistance, the capture of Stony Point
by Wayne (July 15, 1779), and the treason of the Amer-
ican commander of West Point, Benedict Arnold, with
the execution of the British adjutant-general. Major
John Andre, whom the Americans had captured within
their lines while he was carrying on the negotiations
(September, 1780).
81. Midsummer, 1778, marks the beginning of the end.
33,000 men, the high-water mark of the British army in
the United States, had maintained a footing at but two
places. New York city and Newport ; the ministry, in a
war which had no real popular momentum, found Ger-
man mercenaries an expensive resource ; and the Germans
were very apt to desert in America. An extraordinary
number of leading men in England, while they would
not hamper the nation in its struggle, made no scruple of
expressing their practical neutrality or their high regard
for various American leaders. Erance was now in the
war, and Spain and Holland were soon to be the allies of
France. The difficulties of supplying the British army
\^rere now aggravated by the presence of French fleets in
American waters. English commerce had been deci-
mated by American privateers ; and Franklin was gather-
ing vessels in France, in one of which (the '' Richard ")
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 73
Paul Jones was to fight with the " Serapis " one of the
most desperate naval battles on record (September 23,
1779). Perhaps hopeless of success in the Northern and
Middle States, the ministry decided to besjin . ,
' ^ ^ _ ^ Attack on
operations in the south, where it was believed the southern
that the slave population would be a fatal
source of weakness to the Americans.
82. Late in 1778 a British expedition from New York
captured Savannah, and rapidly took possession of the
thinly populated State of Georgia. An attempt to retake
Savannah in the following year cost the Americans the
life of Pulaski. Evacuating Newport, and leaving only
troops enough to hold New York city, Clinton sailed
southward and captured Charleston (May 12, capture of
1780). Thence his forces swept over South Charleston.
Carolina until they had reduced it to a submission
broken by continual outbursts of partisan warfare under
Sumter, Marion, and other leaders. This work finished,
Clinton returned to New York, leaving Conwallis in com-
mand in the south. As soon as the summer heats had
passed away Gates entered the State from the north
with a militia army, and was badly beaten at Battle
Camden (August 16) by an inferior British ofCamden.
force. Even North Carolina now needed defence, and
the work was assigned to Greene, one of the best of the
American officers developed by the war. The com-
mander of his light troops, Morgan, met his British rival,
Tarleton, at the Cowpens (January 17), and
inflicted upon the latter the first defeat he °^p^"^-
had met in the south. This event brought Cornwallis up
to the pursuit of the victor. Morgan and Greene re-
treated all the way across North Carolina, followed by
Cornwallis, and then, having raised fresh troops in Vir-
74 THE UNITED STATES.
ginia, they turned and gave battle at Guilford Court
House (March 15, 1781). Greene was beaten, as was
Guilford Court usually the case with him, but he inflicted so
House. heavy a loss in return that Cornwallis retired
to the coast at Wilmington to repair damages. Greene,
energetic as well as cautious, passed on to the south, and
gave battle to Eawdon, whom Cornwallis had left in com-
mand in South Carolina, at Hobkirk's Hill
(April 25), and was beaten again. But Raw-
don's loss was so severe that he drew in his lines toward
Charleston. Greene followed, and at Eutaw Springs
(September 8) fought the last pitched battle
prings. .^ ^^^ south. Hc was beaten again, but Raw-
don again fell back, and thereafter did all that man
could do in holding the two cities of Charleston and
Savannah. Greene had won no battle, but he had saved
the south.
83. Arnold, now a general in the British service
(§ 80), had been sent, early in the year, to make a lodge-
ment in Virginia. It seems to have been believed by the
British authorities that the three southernmost States
were then secure, and that Virginia could be carved out
next. La Fayette was sent to oppose Arnold, but the
Cornwallis in latter was soon relieved, and in June, Corn-
virginia. wallis Mmsclf entered the State. He had not
been willing to serve with Arnold. Directed to select
a suitable position for a permanent post on the Chesa-
peake, he had chosen Yorktown, where, with the troops
already in Virginia, he fortified his army. The general
ground was that of McClellan's campaign of 1862 (§ 285),
and Grant's of 1864-65 (§ 296).
84. Washington, reinforced by a lately arrived force
of 6000 excellent French troops (July, 1780), under Ro-
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 75
chambeau, was still watching Clinton at New York.
The news that De Grasse's French fleet, on its way to
the American coast, would enter the Chesapeake, where
Cornwallis had left himself open to the chances of such
an event, led Washington to conceive the campaign
which captured Cornwallis and ended the war. He
began elaborate preparations for an attack on New York,
so that Clinton actually called upon Cornwallis for aid.
Moving down the Hudson, he kept Clinton in ignorance
of any movement to the south as long as possible, and
then changed the line of march to one through New
Jersey. The allied armies passed through Philadelphia,
were hurried down the Chesapeake, and drove Cornwallis
within his entrenchments at Yorktown. De
Grasse had arrived August 30, had defeated
the British fleet, and was master of the Chesapeake
waters. After three weeks' siege, Cornwallis, having ex-
hausted a soldier's resources, surrendered his army of
8000 men (October 19, 1781).
85. The country at large had really been at peace
for a long time. Everywhere, except in the immediate
neighborhood of the British forces, the people were work-
ing almost with forgetfulness that they had ever been
English colonists ; and, where the enemy had to be
reckoned with, they were looked upon much as the early
settlers looked on bears or Indians, as an unpleasant
but inevitable item in the debit side of their accounts.
Their legislatures were making their laws ; their gov-
ernors, or "presidents," were the representatives whom
their States acknowledged; nothing but an American
court had the power to touch a particle of the judicial
interests of the American people; the American flag
was recognized on the ocean ; independence was a fact,
76 THE UNITED STATES.
and the ministry received from the English people so
emphatic a call to acknowledge it that it yielded so far
as to propose a defensive war. The House of Commons
(March 4, 1782) voted to regard as enemies to the king
and country all who should advise the further prosecu-
tion of the war ; the Rockingham ministry succeeded to
power, to be followed shortly by the Shelburne minis-
try ; and Rodney's victory over De Grasse gave the new
ministries very much the same cover for an unsuccessful
peace as Jackson's victory at Ncav Orleans afforded the
United States in 1815 (§ 181). Franklin, John Adams,
and Jay, the American negotiators, concluded the pre-
liminary treaty of peace, by which Great Britain acknowl-
edged the independence of the United States (November
30, 1782) ; hostilities ceased ; and the definite
reayo peace. ^^^^^^ ^^ peacc was concludcd (September 3,
1783). A number of American loyalists (usually called
Tories) accompanied the departing armies.
86. In the winter of 1778-79 George Rogers Clark, a
Kentucky leader, acting under the authority of the State
of Virginia, had led a force of backwoodsmen
into the country north of the Ohio river,
captured the British posts in it, and made the soil Amer-
ican up to the latitude of Detroit. The treaty of peace
acknowledged the conquest, and even more than this.
It settled the northern boundary of the United States,
so far as the longitude of the Mississippi river, nearly as
it now runs ; the Mississippi as the western boundary
down to 31° N. lat., thence east on that line to the
present northern boundary of Florida, and east on that
to the Atlantic. Great Britain restored the Floridas to
Spain, so that the new nation had Great Britain as a
neighbor on the north, and Spain on the south and west.
THE STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE. 77
Some disposition had been shown to exclude the Amer-
icans from the fishing ground off Newfoundland, but it
was abandoned. The United States by the treaty entered
the family of nations with recognized boundaries, and all
the territory within these boundaries could be recognized
by other nations only as the property of the United
States. But, so far as internal arrangements were con-
cerned, a great question remained to be settled. There
were thirteen organized States, covering but a part of
this territory ; a part of them claimed to be sole proprie-
tors of the western territory outside of the present State
limits ; and it remained to be seen whether they would
make good their claim, or the other States would compel
them to divide, or the new national power would compel
as clear an internal as an international recognition of
its claim (§89).
87. The American army was now disbanded, its officers
receiving a grudging recognition of their claims and the
privates hardly anything. Poverty was to blame for
much of this, and the popular suspicion of military
power for the rest. Washington's influence was strong
enough to keep the dissatisfied army from any open
revolt, though that step was seriously proposed. The
organization of the hereditary order of the Cincinnati by
the officers brought about a more emphatic
expression of public dislike, and the hered-
itary feature was abandoned. But, wherever the officers
and men went, they carried a personal disgust with the
existing frame of government which could not but pro-
duce ils effect in time. Their miseries had been largely
due to it. The politicians who controlled the State legis-
latures had managed to seize the reins of government and
reduce Congress, the only body with pretensions to a
78 THE UNITED STATES.
national character, to the position of a purely advisory-
body. The soldiery knew instinctively that the lack of
power to feed them and clothe them, the payment of their
scanty wages in paper worth two per cent, of its face value,
were due to the impotence of Congress and the too great
power of the States, that the nation presented the " awful
spectacle," as Hamilton called it, of " a nation without a
national government " ; and the commonest toast in the
army was " Here's a hoop to the barrel " — a stronger
national government to bind the States together.
The struggle for the establishment of this national
government is the next step in the development of the
United States, but to reach it naturally it will be nec-
essary to go back into the midst of the struggle for
independence.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 79
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.
1777-89.
88. The fact that the Continental Congress was really
a revolutionary body, not limited in its powers by any
fundamental law imposed by the underlying popular
sovereignty, but answering most closely to the British
parliament, has already been noted (§ 64). This state of
affairs was repugnant to all the instincts and prejudices
of the American people, and of the delegates who repre-
sented them. Just at the time of the Declaration of
Independence Congress set about preparing a Articles of
"form of confederation," which should ex- Confederation.
press exactly the relative powers of the State and na-
tional governments. Its work was finished November
15, 1777, and recommended to the States for adoption.
Unluckily, before the work had been finished, the State
legislatures had succeeded in establishing their power to
appoint and recall at pleasure the delegates to Congress,
so that Congress had come to be the mere creature of
the State legislatures. The " Articles of Confederation,"
adopted in 1777, were thus calculated for the meridian
of the State legislatures which were to pass upon them.
The new government was to be merely " a firm league of
friendship " between sovereign States, which were to re-
tain every power not "expressly" delegated to Congress;
there was to be but one house of Congress, in which each
80 THE UNITED STATES.
State was to have an equal vote, with, no national execu-
tive or judiciary ; and Congress, while keeping the power
to borrow money, was to have no power to levy taxes, or
to provide in any way for payment of the money bor-
rowed— only to make recommendations to the States or
requisitions on the States, which they pledged their pub-
lic faith to obey. The States were forbidden to make
treaties, war, or peace, to grant titles of nobility, to
keep vessels of war or soldiers, or to lay imposts which
should conflict with treaties already proposed to France
or Spain. Important measures required the votes of
nine of the thirteen States, and amendments the votes of
all. Congress had hardly more than an advisory power
at the best. It had no power to prevent or punish
offences against its own laws, or even to perform effec-
tively the duties enjoined upon it by the Articles of
Confederation. It alone could declare war, but it had no
power to compel the enlistment, arming, or support of
an army. It alone could fix the needed amount of
revenue, but the taxes could only be collected by the
States at their own pleasure. It alone could decide dis-
putes between the States, but it had no power to compel
either disputant to respect or obey its decisions. It
alone could make treaties with foreign nations, but it
had no power to prevent individual States from violating
them. Even commerce, foreign and domestic, was to be
regulated entirely by the States, and it was not long
before State selfishness began to show itself in the regu-
lation of duties on imports. In everything the States
were to be sovereign, and their creature, the Federal
Government, was to have only strength enough to bind
the States into nominal unity, and only life enough to
assure it of its own practical impotence.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 81
89. Most of the States signed the Articles at once ;
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland held out against
ratifying them for from two to four years. The western
The secret of their resistance was in the territory.
claims to the western territory already mentioned (§§ 34,
86). The three recalcitrant States had always had fixed
western boundaries, and had no legal claim to a share in
the western territory ; the Articles, while providing for
the decision of disputes between individual States, were
careful to provide also that " no State shall be deprived
of territory for the benefit of the United States " ; and
this meant that those States whose charters carried them
to the Pacific Ocean, while admitting the national au-
thority to limit their claims by the Mississippi river,
were to divide up the western territory among them.
New Jersey and Delaware gave up the struggle in 1778
and 1779 ; but Maryland would not and did not yield,
until her claims were satisfied.
90. Dr. H. B. Adams has shown that the whole ques-
tion of real nationality for the United States was bound
up in this western territory ; that even a i^s relations to
" league government " could not continue ^^^ ^"'°"'
long to govern a great and growing territory like this
without developing into a real national government,
even without a change of strict law ; and that the Mary-
land leaders were working under a complete conscious-
ness of these facts. It is creditable, however, to the
change which the struggle for union had wrought in the
people, that it was not until very late in this struggle
that Virginia, the most omnivorous western claimant,
proposed to have the Articles go into effect without
Maryland, and still more creditable that her proposal
hardly received notice from the other States. They
82 THE UNITED STATES.
were already conscious that the thirteen were really
one.
91. The solution of the difficulty was found in 1780.
The western boundary of the State of New York had
New York's always been very much in the air. Her main
claim. claim to her present extensive territory lay in
the assertions that the western part had once belonged to
the Six Nations of Indians, and that the Dutch conquer-
ing the Six Nations, the English conquering the Dutch,
and New York conquering the English, had succeeded
to these rights. But the Six Nations had exercised an
undefined suzerainty over all the Indian tribes from
Tennessee to Michilimackinac, covering all the territory
in dispute. New York proposed, if Congress would
confirm her present western boundary, to transfer to
Congress her western claims by conquest, superior to any
mere charter claims ; and Congress approved the offer as
" expressly calculated to accelerate the federal alliance."
On March 1, 1781, the New York delegates formally
completed the deed of transfer to the United States ; on
the same day the Maryland delegates signed the Arti-
cles ; and by this action of the last State the Articles of
Confederation came into force as the first attempt to
frame a national government.
92. The long struggle had given time for careful con-
sideration of the Articles. Maryland's persistent criti-
cism had prepared men to find defects in them. Con-
ventions of New England States, pamphlets, and private
correspondence had found flaws in the new plan of
government; but a public trial of it was a necessary
preliminary to getting rid of it. The efforts of the
individual States to maintain the war, the disposition
of each State to magnify its own share in the result,
ces-
lons.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 83
the popular jealousy of a superior power, transferred
now from parliament to the central government, and
inflamed by the politicians who saw their quickest road
to dignity in the State governments, were enough to
ensure the Articles some lease of life. A real national
government had to be extorted through the "grinding
necessities of a reluctant people."
93. Congress and its committees had already begun to
declare that it was impossible to carry on a government
efficiently under the Articles. Its expostula- Territorial
tions were to be continued for several years
before they were heard. In the meantime it did not
neglect the great subject which concerned the essence of
nationality — the western territory. Virginia had made
a first offer to cede her claims, but it was not accepted.
A committee of Congress now made a report (1782)
maintaining the validity of the rights which New York
had transferred to Congress ; and in the next year
Virginia made an acceptable offer. Her deed was
accepted (March 1, 1784) ; the other claimant States
followed; and Congress, which was not authorized by
the Articles to hold or govern territory, became the
sovereign of a tract of some 430,000 square miles, nearly
equal to the areas of France, Spain, and Portugal, com-
bined, covering all the country between the Atlantic tier
of States and the Mississippi river, from the British
possessions nearly to the Gulf of Mexico.
94. In this territory Congress had now on its hands
the same question of colonial government in which the
British parliament had so signally failed. Territorial
The manner in which Congress dealt with it government.
has made the United States the country that it is. The
leading feature of this plan was the erection, as rapidly
84 THE UNITED STATES.
as possible, of States, similar in powers to the original
States. The power of Congress over the territories was
to be theoretically absolute, but it was to be exerted in
encouraging the development of thorough self-govern-
ment, and in granting it as fast as the settlers should
become capable of exercising it. Copied in succeeding
Acts for the organization of Territories, and still con-
The Ordinance trolHug the Spirit of such Acts, the Ordinance
of 1787. of 1787 (July 13, 1787) is the foundation of
almost everything which makes the modern American
system peculiar.
95. The preliminary plan of Congress was reported by
a committee (April 23, 1784) of which Jefferson was
chairman. It provided for the erection of seventeen
States, north and south of the Ohio, with some odd
names, such as Sylvania, Assenisipia, Metropotamia,
Polypotamia, and Pelisipia. These States were forever
to be a part of the United States, and to have republican
governments, and the Ordinance creating them was to be
a compact between the Federal Government and each
State, unalterable unless by mutual consent. " After the
year 1800 there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude in any of the said States, other than in the
punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted." This provision, which represented Jef-
ferson's feeling on the subject, was lost for want of seven
States in its favor.
96. The final plan of 1787 was reported by a committee
of which Nathan Dane, of Massachusetts, was chairman.
The prohibition of slavery was made perpetual, a,nd a
fugitive slave clause was added (§ 124). The Ordinance
covered only the territory north of the Ohio, and provided
for not less than three nor more than five States. Ohio,
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 85
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin have been the
resultant States. The inhabitants were to be secured in
the equal division of real and personal property of intes-
tates to the next of kin in equal degree. At first Con-
gress was to appoint the governor, secretary, judges, and
militia generals, and the governor and judges were to
make laws subject to the veto of Congress. When the
population reached 5000 the inhabitants were to have an
assembly of their own, to consist of the governor, a legis-
lative council of five, selected by Congress from ten
nominations by the lower house^ and a lower house of
representatives of one delegate for every 500 inhabitants.
This assembly was to choose a delegate to sit, but not to
vote, in Congress, and was to make laws not repugnant to
"the articles of fundamental compact," which were as
follows : the new States or Territories were to maintain
freedom of worship, the benefits of the writ of habeas
corpus, trial by jury, proportionate representation, bail,
moderate fines and punishments, and the preservation of
liberty, property, and private contracts; they were to
encourage public education and keep faith with the
Indians ; they were to remain forever a part of the United
States ; and they were not to interfere with the disposal
of the soil by the United States, or to tax the lands of
the United States, or to tax any citizen of the United
States for the use of the Mississippi or St. Lawrence
rivers. These articles were to be unalterable unless by
mutual consent of a State and the United States. The
transformation of the Territory, with its quite limited
government, into a State, with all the powers of an origi-
nal State, was promised by Congress as soon as the popu-
lation should reach 60,000.
97. The Constitution, which was adopted almost imme'
86 THE UNITED STATES.
diately afterwards, provided merely that " Congress shall
have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules and
regulations respecting, the territory or other property
belonging to the United States," and that " new States
may be admitted by the Congress into the Union."
Opinions have varied as to the force of the Ordinance of
1787. The southern school of writers have naturally
been inclined to consider it ultra vires and void ; and they
adduce the fact that the new Congress under the Consti-
tution thought it necessary to re-enact the Ordinance.
The opposite school have inclined to hold the Ordinance
as still in force. Even as to the territorial provision of
the Constitution, opinions have varied. The Dred Scott
decision held that it applied only to the territory then in
possession of the United States, and that territory subse-
quently acquired, by conquest or purchase, was not to be
governed by Congress with absolute power, but subject
to constitutional limitations.
98. In the interval of the settlement of the territorial
question, the affairs of the " league of friendship " known
as the United States had been going from bad to worse,
culminating in 1786. The public debt amounted in 1783
to about $42,000,000, of which f 8,000,000 was owed
abroad — in Holland, France, and Spain. Congress had
no power to levy taxes for the payment of interest or
principal ; it could only make requisitions on the States.
In the four years ending in 1786 requisitions had been
^.„, , . made for $10,000,000, and the receipts from
Difficulties ^ ; ? J i
of the confeder- them had amouutcd to but one-fourth of what
^^'°"" had been called for. Even the interest on
the debt was falling into arrears, and the first instalment
of the principal fell due in 1787. To pay this, and
subsequent annual instalments of $1,000,000, was quite
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 87
impossible. Robert Morris, the financier of the revolu-
tion, resigned in 1783, "rather than be the minister of
injustice," hoping thus to force upon the States the
necessity of granting taxing powers to Congress. Wash-
ington, on retiring from the command-in-chief, wrote a
circular letter to the governors of all the States, urging
the necessity of granting to Congress some power to
provide a national revenue. Congress (April 18, 1783)
appealed to the States for power to levy specific duties on
certain enumerated articles, and five per cent, on others.
It was believed that with these duties and the requisi-
tions, which were now to be met by internal taxation,
$2,500,000 per annum could be raised. Some of the
States ratified the proposal ; others ratified it with
modifications ; others rejected it, or changed their votes ;
and it never received the necessary ratification of all the
States. The obedience to the requisitions grew more lax.
Some of the States paid them ; others pleaded poverty,
and allowed more or less of them to run into arrears ;
others offered to pay in their own depreciated paper cur-
rency; and others indignantly refused to pay in any
currency until the delinquent States should pay all their
obligations. In 1786 a committee of Congress reported
that any further reliance on requisitions would be " dis-
honorable to the understandings of those who entertain
such confidence."
99. In the States the case was even worse. Some of
them had been seduced into issuing paper currency in
such profusion that they were almost bank- Difficulties
rupt. Great Britain, in the treaty of peace, °f *^^ sxaxes.
had recognized the independence of the individual States,
naming them in order ; and her Government followed
the same system in all its intercourse with its late col-
88 THE UNITED STATES,
onies. Its restrictive system was maintained, and the
States, vying with each other for commerce, could adopt
no system of counteracting measures. Every possible
burden was thus shifted to American commerce; and
Congress could do nothing, for, though it asked for the
power to regulate commerce for fifteen years, the States
refused it. The decisions of the various State courts be-
gan to conflict, and there was no power to reconcile them
or to prevent the consequences of the divergence. Sev-
eral States, towards the end of this period, began to
prepare or adopt systems of protection of domestic pro-
ductions or manufactures, aimed at preventing competi-
tion by neighboring States. The Tennessee settlers were
in insurrection against the authority of North Carolina ;
and the Kentucky settlers were apparently disposed to
cut loose from Virginia if not from the United States.
Poverty, with the rigid execution of process for debt, drove
the farmers of western Massachusetts into an insurrec-
tion which the State had much difficulty in suppressing ;
and Congress was so incompetent to aid Massachusetts
that it was driven to the expedient of imagining an In-
dian war in that direction, in order to transfer troops
Difficulties thither. Congress itself was in danger of dis-
of Congress, appcarancc from the scene. The necessity
for the votes of nine of the thirteen States for the x)as-
sage of important measures made the absence of a State's
delegation quite as effective as a negative vote. In order
to save the expense of a delegation, the States began to
neglect the election of them, unless they had some object
to obtain by their attendance. It was necessary for Con-
gress to make repeated and urgent appeals in order to ob-
tain a quorum for the ratification of the treaty of peace
with Great Britain. In 1784 Congress even broke up in
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 89
disgust, and tlie French minister reported to his Govern-
ment, " There is now in America no general govern-
ment — neither Congress nor President, nor head of any
one administrative department." Everywhere there were
symptoms of a dissolution of the Union.
100. Congress was evidently incompetent to frame a
new plan of national government ; its members were too
dependent on their States, and would be recalled if they
took part in framing anything stronger than the Arti-
cles. The idea of a convention of the States, Proposals for a
independent of Congress, was in the minds convention.
and mouths of many ; Thomas Paine had suggested it as
long ago as his Common Sense pamphlet : " Let a conti-
nental conference be held, to frame a continental charter,
drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between
members of Congress and members of assembly." To a
people as fond of law and the forms of law as the Amer-
icans, there was a difficulty in the way. The Articles
had provided that no change should be made in them
but by the assent of every State legislature. If the
work of such a convention was to be subject to this rule,
its success would be no greater than that of Congress ; if
its plan was to be put into force on the ratification of
less than the whole number of States, the step would be
more or less revolutionary. In the end, the latter course
was taken, though not until every other expedient had
failed ; but the act of taking it showed the underlying
consciousness that union, independence, and nationality
were now inextricably complicated, and that the thirteen
had become one in some senses.
101. The country drifted into a convention by a
roundabout way. The navigation of Chesapeake Bay
needed regulation ; and the States of Maryland and Vir-
90 THE UNITED STATES.
ginia, having plenary power in the matter, appointed
delegates to arrange such rules. The delegates met
(1785) at Washington's house, Mount Vernon ; and
Maryland, in adopting their report, proposed a meeting
of commissioners from all the States to frame commer-
cial regulations for the whole. Virginia acceded at once,
Convention of ^i^^L uamod Aunapolls, in Maryland, as the
'^^^- place. The convention met (1786), but only
five States were represented, and their delegates ad-
journed, after recommending another convention at
Philadelphia, in May, 1787.
102. Congress had failed in its last resort — a pro-
posal that the States should grant it the impost power
Convention of ^louc ; Ncw York's vcto had put an end to
'"'S'^- this last hope. Confessing its helplessness.
Congress approved the call for a second convention ;
twelve of the States (all but Ehode Island) chose dele-
gates ; and the convention met at Philadelphia (May 14,
1787), with an abler body of men than had been seen in
Congress since the first two Continental Congresses.
Among others, Virginia sent Washington, Madison, Ed-
mund Randolph, George Mason, and George Wythe ;
Pennsylvania, Franklin, Robert and Gouverneur Mor-
ris, and James Wilson; Massachusetts, Rufus King,
Gerry, and Strong ; Connecticut, William S. Johnson,
Sherman, and Ellsworth; New York, Hamilton; New
Jersey, Paterson; and South Carolina, the two Pinck-
neys and Rutledge. With hardly an exception the
fifty-five delegates were clear-headed, moderate men,
with positive views of their own, and firm purpose,
but with a willingness to compromise.
103. Washington was chosen to preside, and the con-
vention began the formation of a new Constii;ution, instead
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 91
of proposing changes in the oki one. Two parties were
formed at once. The Virginia delegates offered jhe Virginia
a plan, proposing a Congress of two houses, p'^"-
having power to legislate on national subjects, and to
compel the States to fulfil their obligations. This is
often spoken of as a " national plan," but very improp-
erly. It was a "large-State" plan, proposed by those
States which had or hoped for a large population. It
meant to base representation in both houses on popula-
tion, so that the large States could control both of them,
and it left the api:)ointment of the President or other
executive and the Federal judges to Congress, — so that
the whole administration of the new government would
fall under large-State control. On behalf of jhe New jersey
the " small States " Paterson of New Jersey p'^"-
brought in another plan. It continued the old Confed-
eration, with its single house and equal State vote, but
added the power to regulate commerce and raise a reve-
nue, and to compel the States to obey requisitions. The
State representation was fortunate. New Hampshire's
delegates did not attend until after those of New York
(then classed as a small State) had retired from the con-
vention in anger at its evident drift toward the " large-
State " plan. The large States had a general majority of
six to five, but the constant dropping off of one or more
votes, on minor features, from their side to that of the
small States prevented the hasty adoption of any radical
measures. Nevertheless, the final collision could not be
evaded ; the basis of the two plans was in the question of
one or two houses, of equal or proportionate State votes,
of large-State supremacy or of State equality. In July
the large States began to show a disposition to force theii
92 THE UNITED STATES.
plan through, and the small States began to threaten
a concerted withdrawal from the convention.
104. The Connecticut delegates, from their first appear-
ance in the convention, had favored a compromise. They
The compro- ^^^ bccn trained under the New England sys-
'"'s®- tern, in which the assemblies were made up
of two houses, one representing the people of the whole
State, according to population, and the other giving an
equal representation to the towns. They proposed that
the new Congress should be made up of two houses, one
representing the States in proportion to their population,
the other giving an equal vote to each State. At a dead-
lock, the convention referred the proposition to a com-
mittee, and it reported in favor of the Connecticut
compromise. Connecticut had been voting in the large-
State list, and the votes of her delegates could not be
spared from their slender majority ; now another of the
large States, North Carolina, came over to Connecticut's
proposal, and it was adopted. Thus the first great strug-
gle of the convention resulted in a compromise, which
took shape in the peculiar feature of the Constitution,
the senate.
105. The little States were still anxious, in every new
question, to throw as much power as possible into the
hands of their special representative, the senate; and
The work of the ^i'-^'t body thus obtained its power to act as
convention, ^j^ exccutivc couucil as a restraint on the Pres-
ident in appointments and treaties. This was the only
survival of the first alignment of parties ; but new divis-
ions arose on almost every proposal introduced. The
election of the President was given at various times to
Congress and to electors chosen by the State legislatures ;
and the final mode of choice, by electors chosen by the
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 93
States, was settled only two weeks before the end of the
convention, the office of Vice-President coming in with
it. The opponents and supporters of the slave trade
compromised by agreeing not to prohibit it for twenty
years. Another compromise included three-fifths of the
slaves in enumerating population for representation.
This was the provision which gave the slave-holders
abnormal power as the number of slaves increased ; for
a district in the " black belt " of the south, while three-
fifths of its slaves were enumerated, really gave repre-
sentation to its few whites only.
106. Any explanation of the system introduced by the
Constitution must start with the historical fact that while
the national Government was practically suspended, from
1776 until 1789, the only power to which political privi-
leges had been given by the people was the States, and
that the State legislatures were, when the convention
met, x^olitically omnipotent, with the exception of the
few limitations imposed on them by the early State con-
stitutions, which were not at all so searching or severe
as those of more recent years. The general rule, then,
is that the Federal Government has only the powers
granted to it by the Federal Constitution, while the State
has all governmental powers not forbidden to it by the
State or the Federal Constitution. But the phrase defin-
ing the Federal Government's powers is no longer " ex-
pressly granted," as in the Articles of Confederation, but
merely "granted," so that powers necessary to the exe-
cution of granted powers belong to the Federal Govern-
ment, even though not directly named in the Constitution.
This question of the interpretation, or " construction," of
the Constitution is at the bottom of real national politics
in the United States : the minimizing parties have sought
94 THE UNITED STATES.
to hold the Federal Government to a strict construction
of granted powers, while their opponents have sought to
widen those powers by a broad construction of them.
The strict-construction parties, when they have come
into power, have regularly adopted the practice of their
opponents, so that construction has pretty steadily broad-
ened; the power to "regulate commerce between the
States " is now interpreted so as to include the power of
Congress to regulate the fares and contracts of railways
engaged in inter-State commerce (§ 327), which would
have been deemed preposterous in 1787.
107. Popular sovereignty, then, is the oasis of the
American system. But it does not, as does the English
system, choose its legislative body and leave unlimited
powers to it. It makes its " Constitution " the permanent
TheConstitu- medium of its orders or prohibitions to all
*'°"- branches of the Federal Government and to
many branches of the State Governments : they must do
what the Constitution directs and leave undone what it
forbids. The people, therefore, are continually laying
their commands on their Governments ; and they have
instituted a system of Federal courts to ensure obedience
to their commands. An English court must obey the
Act of parliament ; the American court is bound and
sworn to obey the Constitution first and the Act of Con-
gress or of the State legislature only so far as it is
warranted by the Constitution. But the American court
does not deal directly with the Act in question ; it deals
with individuals who have a suit before it. One of these
individuals relies on an Act of Congress or of a State
legislature ; the Act thus comes before the court for ex-
amination ; and it supports the Act or disregards it as
"unconstitutional," or in violation of the Constitution.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 95
If the court is one of high, rank or reputation, or one to
which a decision may be appealed, as the United States
Supreme Court, other courts follow the precedent, and
the law falls to the ground. The court does not come
into direct conflict with the legislative body ; and, where
a decision would be apt to produce such a conflict, the
practice has been for the court to regard the matter as a
" political question '' and refuse to consider it.
108. The preamble states that " we, the people of the
United States,'' establish and ordain the Constitution.
Events have shown that it was the people
of the whole United States that established ^'^^ p^^^"^^'^-
the Constitution, but the people of 1787 seem to have
inclined to the belief that it was the people of each
State for itself. This belief was never changed in the
south ; and in 1861 the people of that section believed
that the ordinances of secession were merely a repeal of
the enacting clause by the power which had passed it,
the people of the State.
109. The original Constitution was in seven articles.
The first related to the organization and powers of
Congress, which consists of a senate and The house of
house of representatives. Eepresentatives representatives.
are to be inhabitants of the State for which they are
chosen, to be twenty-five years old at least, and are to
serve two years. Each house of representatives thus
lasts for two years, and this period is usually known as
" a Congress " ; the fiftieth Congress expired March 4,
1889, having completed the first century of the Con.
^titution. Eepresentatives are assigned to the States in
proportion to population, and this fact forced the pro-
vision for a decennial census, the first appearance of
such a provision in modern national history. The first
96 THE UNITED STATES.
census was taken in 1790. Apportionment of repre-
sentatives from 1883 to 1893 is governed by the census
of 1880 ; by Act of Congress the number 154,325 is the
divisor into a State's pox^ulation which fixes the number
of the State's representatives, the whole number of
representatives being 325/ with eight delegates from the
Territories, having seats and the right to debate, but not
to vote. The house elects its speaker and other officers,
and has the power of impeachment.
110. The legislature of each State elects two senators,
to serve for six years; and no State can ever be
deprived of its equal share of representation
except by its own consent. The senators are
divided into three classes, the term of one class expiring
every two years. Six years are therefore necessary to
completely change the composition of the senate, and it
is considered a continuous body. Senators are to be at
least thirty years old, and must be inhabitants of the
States from which they are chosen and citizens of the
United States for at least nine years previous to their
election. The Vice-President presides over the senate,
having no vote unless in case of an equal division. But
the legislative provision (continuing until 1887) that the
death or disability of the President and Vice-President
devolved the office of President on the presiding officer
pro tempore of the senate made that officer one of great
possible importance, and the Vice-President regularly
retired just before the end of a session, so that a pro
tempore officer might be selected (§ 117).
1 The admission of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and
Washington (see note, page 58), will increase the number of represen-
tatives to 330, with one delegate from each of the four remaining Terri-
tories, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Idaho.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 97
111. All officers of the United States are open to im-
peachment by the house of representatives, the impeach-
ment to be tried by the senate, and the
penalty to be no more than removal and dis-
qualification to serve further under the United States.
When the President is tried, the chief-justice of the
Supreme Court presides.
112. The members of both houses are privileged from
arrest and from being questioned elsewhere for words
spoken in debate. Each house passes on the
election of its own members ; but an Act of
Congress may control the Acts of the State legislature
as to time, place, and manner of elections, except as to
the place of choosing senators, in which the legislature
remains supreme. Congress has exercised the power by
passing a general election law. The two houses cannot
adjourn to another place or for more than three days,
unless by common consent. Their members are paid by
the United States, and must not be office-holders or
receive any office created or increased in pay during their
term of service in Congress.
113. When a bill passes both houses it goes to the
President. If he signs, it becomes a law. If he holds
it without signing for ten days (Sundays
excepted) it becomes law, unless the final ^°p°^^^-
adjournment of Congress comes in the ten days. All
bills passed in the last ten days of a Congress are there-
fore at the mercy of the President ; he can prevent them
from becoming laws by simply retaining them. If the
President decides to veto a bill he returns it, with a
statement of his objections, to the house in which it
originated. It can then only become law by the vote of
two-thirds of both houses.
98 THE UNITED STATES.
114. The powers of Congress are fully stated. The
first is to "lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and
Powers of Con- exciscs, [in Order] to pay the de^. s and pro-
gress. yi(jg fQp ^Q common defence and general
welfare of the United States." The words in brackets
are not in the original, but they are included in con-
struction by all respectable authorities, as essential to
its meaning; any other construction would give Con-
gress absolute power over whatever it thought to be
for " the common defence or general welfare." Duties,
etc., are to be uniform throughout the United States.
Other powers are : to borrow money ; to regulate foreign
and domestic commerce ; to make rules for naturalizar
tion, and bankruptcy laws ; to coin money, regulate the
value of foreign coins, and fix the standard of weights
and measures; to punish the counterfeiting of Federal
securities and current coin ; to establish post-offices and
post-roads; to establish patent and copyright systems;
to establish courts inferior to the Supreme Court ; to
punish offences on the high seas or against international
law; to declare war, grant letters of marque and
reprisal, and make rules for captures ; to raise and sup-
port armies, no appropriation to be for more than two
years ; to provide and maintain a navy ; to make articles
of war; to use the militia of the States in executing
Federal laws, suppressing insurrections, and repelling
invasions ; to provide for organizing, arming, and disci-
plining this militia, leaving the States to appoint the
officers, and carry out the system; to establish a
national capital or Federal district (the District of
Columbia, containing the city of Washington), and to
exercise exclusive powers of legislation over it, and over
sites for forts, dockyards, etc., bought by permission of
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT, 99
the States ; and, finally, " to make all laws whicli shall
be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or
in any department or office thereof." This last power
has been the subject of most debate. It was urged that,
unless an Act of Congress was strictly " necessary " for
the execution of one of the granted powers, it was
invalid. The Supreme Court has held that the Act need
not be " absolutely necessary," or even " very necessary,"
— that it is enough if it is " necessary." As the
decision of the necessity is with the legislative body, the
word opens a wide sweep for construction; but it has
always furnished a barricade which the opponents of a
bill have often found very strong.
115. The real sovereignty which made the Constitu-
tion shows itself in a double series of prohibitions — on
the Federal Government and on the States.
Powers forbidden
The Federal Government shall not suspend to the Federal
the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ex- ^°^^''"'^®"^-
cept in case of rebellion or invasion, when the public
safety requires it. Since the Civil War the Supreme
Court has decided that the writ itself can never be sus-
pended while the courts are open, that the Federal Gov-
ernment may suspend the privilege of the writ as to classes
of persons directly interested in the war, but that the
writ is still to issue and the court to decide whether the
applicant comes within the excepted classes or not. Con-
gress must not pass any bill of attainder or ex post facto
law, tax exports, give commercial preference to the ports
of one State over those of another, lay direct taxes except
in proportion to census population, or grant any title of
nobility. Money is to be taken from the treasury only
LaFC.
100 THE UNITED STATES.
in consequence of appropriations made by law. And no
person in the service of the United States may accept
any gift or title from a foreign power without consent of
Congress.
116. The States are absolutely forbidden to make trea-
ties of any kind, to grant letters of marque and reprisal,
Powers forbidden to coiu moucy, to cmlt bills of credit, to make
to the States, anything but gold and silver a legal tender, to
grant any title of nobility, to pass any bill of attainder, ex
post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of contracts.
It follows from the last clause that States cannot pass
bankruptcy laws. The States are forbidden, except by
consent of Congress, to lay any duties on imports or ex-
ports, except inspection charges, to be paid into the Fed-
eral treasury ; to lay any tonnage duties ; to keep troops
(a word which does not cover militia) or ships in peace;
to make any agreement with another State or with a for-
eign power ; or to eugage in war unless actually invaded.
117. The President is to be a native citizen, at least
thirty-five years old, and at least fourteen years a resi-
The President ^cut witliiu thc United Statcs. He is paid by
and his powers. ^\^q United Statcs ; and his salary is not to
be increased or diminished by Congress during his term :
the Act must apply to the successors of the President
who signs the Act. He is sworn to execute his oihce
faithfully, and to ^^ preserve, protect, and defend the Con-
stitution of the United States.'' In case of his death,
resignation, or inability (by impeachment or otherwise)
the Vice-President succeeds him ; and, in case of the ina-
bility of both, the members of the cabinet succeed in a
prescribed order, according to the Presidential Succession
Act of 1886. The President has the veto power already
described, sends messages to Congress on the state of the
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 101
Union or on special subjects, convenes either house or
both on extraordinary occasions, receives foreign envoys,
commissions officers of the United States, and oversees
the execution of the laws passed by Congress. He
makes treaties ; but no treaty is valid unless passed by
the senate by a two-thirds vote of those present. He ap-
points ministers and consuls, judges, and all other officers
whose appointment Congress had not vested in other
officers ; but presidential appointments must be confirmed
by the senate, though the President may make temporary
appointments during the recess of the senate, to hold
until the end of their next session. He is commander-in-
chief of the army and navy, and has power of pardon or
reprieve for offences against Federal laws, except in case
of impeachment. And he may call upon heads of depart-
ments for an opinion in writing on any subject relating
to his department.
118. The last clause has evolved the "cabinet," a
term not known in the Constitution. When Congress
has by law organized a department, its lead-
ing officer is called its secretary. There are
now (1887) seven departments — those of state, of the
treasury, of war, of the navy, of the post-office, of the
interior, and of justice ; and departments of agriculture
and of labor have been proposed.^ The secretaries are
selected by the President and are confirmed by the sen-
ate, but are not responsible to any one but the President.
Nor is he bound by their individual opinions, or even by
a unanimous opinion from one of their periodical meet-
ings. They are his advisers only.
119. The people have no direct voice in the choice of
President and Vice-President : they choose electors, each
1 A department of agriculture was organized in February, 1889.
102 THE UNITED STATES.
State having as many electors as it has senators and
representatives together; and the electors choose the
President and Vice-President, meeting at their State capi-
The electoral ^als for that purposc, and sending separate
system. certificates of their choice of President and of
Vice-President to the presiding ofiicer of the senate at
Washington. The electors are to be chosen in such
manner as the legislature of each State shall direct ; and
this plenary power of the legislatures was the source of
the unhappy disputed election of 1876-77. By Acts of
Congress, the electors are to be chosen on the Tuesday
after the first Monday of November ; they meet in their
States and vote on the first Wednesday of December ;
and Congress meets on the second Wednesday of Febru-
ary to witness the counting of the electoral votes. The
electors are legally State officers ; and the action of their
States in regard to them was evidently intended to be
final. Until 1887 Congress refused to provide for nec-
essary proof of the State's action, and claimed the power
to provide from time to time for emergencies. Such
emergencies were constantly occurring ; and Congress,
which was meant to be merely a witness of the count by
the presiding ofiicer of the senate, had seized, before 1876,
a general supervisory power over the electors and their
votes. This illegitimate function of Congress broke down
in 1876-77, for several Southern States sent different sets
of certificates ; the two houses of Congress were con-
trolled by opposite parties, and could agree on nothing ;
and an extra-constitutional machine, the " electoral com-
mission," was improvised to tide over the difficulty.
Now provision is made by the Electoral Count Act of
1887, for the State's certification of its votes ; and the
certificate which comes in legal form is not to be rejected
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 103
but by a vote of both, bouses. If there is no majority
of electoral votes for any person for Vice-President, the
senate, by a majority of its members, chooses from the
two names highest on the list. If there is no majority
for President, the house of representatives chooses one
from the three names highest on the list, each State
having one vote.
120. The electors were meant to exercise a perfect
freedom of choice, and there are instances in early years
of electors voting for personal friends of the powers of the
opposite party. It was originally provided electors.
that each elector was to name two persons, without
specifying which was to be President or Vice-President.
When the votes were counted, the highest name on the
list, if it had a majority of all the votes, obtained the
presidency, and the next highest became Vice-President.
It has been said that the convention cut out the office of
President according to the measure of George Washing-
ton, and there was no difficulty while he served : each
elector cast one of his votes for Washington, and he was
chosen unanimously; the struggle was for the second
office. When he went out of office in 1796 the parties
began to name candidates in advance for the two offices ;
the electors began to feel bound to vote for their party
candidates; and the individuality of the electors dis-
appeared at once. In the election of 1800 the electors
of the successful party voted together like a well-drilled
army, and the result was that the two candidates of the
successful party had an equal vote. The defeated party
controlled the house of representatives, and their efforts to
choose Burr President instead of Jefferson ex- jhe 12th
asperated the Democrats and sealed the fate amendment.
of the old system. An amendment to the Constitution
104 THE UNITED STATES.
was adopted in 1804, changing the method of the electors
in voting, so that each should vote separately for the
two offices and thus prevent any tie vote from this cause.
121. The Constitution provides for one Supreme Court,
having original jurisdiction in cases affecting foreign
The Federal miuisters and consuls, and those to which a
courts. State shall be a party, and appellate jurisdic-
tion from such subordinate courts as Congress should
from time to time establish. All judges were to hold
office during good behavior (§ 237), and their salaries
were not to be diminished during their continuance in
office. Criminal trials were to be by jury, except in
impeachments, and were to be held within the State in
which the offence had been committed, or in places
assigned by law for the trial of offences committed out-
side the jurisdiction of any State. The whole jurisdic-
tion of Federal courts, covering both the original and the
appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, was clearly
stated. Federal courts were to deal with all cases in
law or equity arising under the Constitution or the laws
or treaties made under it ; with all cases affecting public
ministers and consuls, or admiralty or maritime law;
with suits by or against the United States ; and with
suits by one State against another, by a State against
citizens of another State, by a citizen of one State against
a citizen of another, by a citizen of a State against citi-
zens of his own State when the question was one of a
grant of land from different States, by a State or its
citizens against foreigners, or by a foreigner against an
American. As the section first stood, it was open to
the construction of giving the power to the citizen of
one State to sue another State, and the Supreme Court
so construed it in 1793-94. The States at once took the
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 105
alarm ; and the llth. amendment, forbidding suit against
a State under this section except by another State, was
ratified in 1798.
122. As soon as the new Government was organized
in 1789, a Judiciary Act was passed, organizing the whole
system of inferior Federal courts. Subse- organization of
quent development has not changed the essen- the judiciary.
tial nature of this first Act. The Supreme Court now
consists of a chief-justice and eight associate justices ;
there are nine circuit courts, each consisting of a Supreme
Court justice and a circuit judge ; and fifty-six district
courts, each with a district judge. Each circuit com-
prises several States ; and the Supreme Court justices, in
addition to their circuit work, meet in bank annually at
Washington. The districts cover each a State or a part
of a State. Appeal lies from the district to the circuit
court when the matter involved is of a value greater than
^500, and from the circuit to the Supreme Court when
$5000 or more is involved. There are also Territorial
courts ; but these are under the absolute power of Con-
gress over the Territories, and are not covered by the
constitutional provisions as to courts. Consular courts,
held abroad, fall under the treaty power.
123. The Constitution's leading difference from the
Confederation is that it gives the national Government
power over individuals. The Federal courts its power over
are the principal agent in securing this essen- individuals.
tial power ; without them, the Constitution might easily
have been as dismal a failure as the Confederation. It
has also been a most important agent in securing to the
national Government its supremacy over the States.
From this point of view the most important provision of
the Constitution is the grant of jurisdiction to Federal
106 THE UNITED STATES.
courts in cases involving the construction of the Consti-
tution or of laws or treaties made under it. The 25th
section of the Judiciary Act permitted any Supreme
Court justice to grant a writ of error to a State court in
a case in which the constitutionality of a Federal law or
treaty had been denied, or in which a State law objected
to as in violation of the Federal Constitution had been
maintained. In such cases, the defeated party had the
right to carry the "Federal question" to the Federal
courts. It was not until 1816 that the Federal courts
undertook to exercise this power ; it raised a storm of
opposition, but it was maintained, and has made the Con-
stitution what it professed to be — " the supreme law of
the land." As a subsidiary feature in the
judiciary system, treason was restricted to the
act of levying war against the United States, or of adher-
ing to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort ; the
evidence of it to confession in open court, or to the testi-
mony of two witnesses to an overt act ; and any forfeiture
in the punishment to a life effect only. The States,
however, have always asserted their power to punish for
treason against them individually. It has never been
fully maintained in practice ; but the theory had its
effect in the secession period.
124. The States were bound to give credit to the pub-
lic records of other States, to accord citizenship to the
Fugitive crimi- citizcus of othcr Statcs, to return criminals
nais and slaves, fleeing from othcr States, and to return " per-
sons held to service or labor" under the laws of another
State. This last was the " fugitive slave " provision
of the Constitution, which became so important after
1850 (§ 228).
125. The Federal Government was to guarantee a
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 107
republican form of government to each of the States, and
to protect each of them against invasion, or, Guarantee
on application of the legislature or governor, clause.
against domestic violence. The " guarantee clause " really
substituted State rights under the guarantee of the Fed-
eral Government for the notion of State sovereignty
under the guarantee of the State itself. A still stronger
case of this was in the 5th article of the Constitution,
stating the manner of amendment. The convention of
1787, it must be borne in mind, was working under a sys-
tem of government which provided expressly that it was
not to be altered in the least unless by consent of all the
States. The Constitution provided that it was to go into
force, so far as the ratifying States were concerned, as
soon as nine of the thirteen States should ratify it, and
that any future amendment, when passed by two-thirds
of both houses and ratified by the legislatures or conven-
tions of three-fourths of the States, should become a part
of the Constitution. By application of the legislatures
of two-thirds of the States, a new convention, like that
which framed the Constitution, might take the place of
the two houses of Congress in proposing amendments. A
system under which a State submits its whole future
destiny to an unlimited power of decision in three-
fourths of its associate States can hardly be called one
of State sovereignty.
126. The debts of the Confederation, and its engage-
ments, were made binding on the new Government ;
the Constitution, and laws and treaties to be supreme law of
made under it, were declared to be " the su- *^^ '^"'^•
preme law of the land '' ; judges of State courts were to
be bound thereby, " anything in the Constitution or laws
of any State to the contrary notwithstanding " ; all the
108 THE UNITED STATES.
legislative, executive, and judicial officers of the United
States and of each and every State were to be bound by
oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the
United States ; but religious tests were forbidden.
127. Ten amendments were adopted so soon after the
ratification of the Constitution that they may fairly be
The first ten cousidcrcd a part of the original instrument.
amendments. They wcrc duc to a general desire that a "bill
of rights " of some kind should be added to it ; but they
did not alter any of the articles of the Constitution.
They forbade any establishment of religion by Congress,
or any abridgment of freedom of worship, of the press,
or of speech, or of the popular right to assemble and peti-
tion the Government for redress of grievances ; the bil-
leting of soldiers ; unreasonable searches or seizures, or
general warrants ; trials for infamous crimes except
through a grand jury's action; subjecting a person for
the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or
limb ; compelling him to witness against himself in crim-
inal cases ; the taking of life, liberty, or property with-
out due process of law or without compensation for prop-
erty ; and the demand of excessive bail, or the imposition
of excessive fines or of cruel or unusual punishments.
They asserted the right of the people to keep and bear
arms, to a jury trial from the vicinage in criminal cases
or in cases involving more than twenty dollars, to a copy
of the indictment, to the testimony against the prisoner,
to compulsory process on his behalf, and to counsel for
him. And they stated expressly the general principle
already given, that the Federal Government is restricted
to granted powers, while those not mentioned are reserved
" to the States respectively or to the people."
128. The omission of the word " thereof " after the
TKE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 109
clause last mentioned seems significant. The system of
tlie United States is almost the only national
.... , p , ,. The sovereignty.
system, m active and successiui operation, as
to which the exact location of the sovereignty is still a
mooted question. The contention of the Calhoun school
— that the separate States were sovereign before and
after the adoption of the Constitution, that each State
adopted it by its own power, maintained it by its own
power, and could put an end to it by its own power, that
the Union was purely voluntary, and that the whole peo-
ple, or the people of all the other States, had no right to
maintain or enforce the Union against any State — has
been ended by the Civil War. But that did not decide
the location of the sovereignty. The prevalent opinion
is still that first formulated by Madison : that the States
were sovereign before 1789 ; that they then gave up a
part of their sovereignty to the Federal Government;
that the Union and the Constitution were the work of the
States, not of the whole people ; and that reserved powers
are reserved to the people of the States, not to the whole
people. The use of this bald phrase "reserved to the
people," not to the people of the several States, in the
10th amendment, seems to argue an underlying conscious-
ness, even in 1789, that the whole people of the United
States was already a political power quite distinct from
the States, or the people of the States ; and the tendency
of later opinion is in this direction. It must be admitted
that the whole people has never acted in a single capac-
ity ; but the restriction to State lines seems to be a self-
imposed limitation by the national people, which it might
remove, as in 1789, if an emergency should make it nec-
essary. The Civil War amendments are considered below
(§§ 305-309).
110 THE UNITED STATES.
129. By whatever sovereignty the Constitution was
framed and imposed, it was meant only as a scheme in
Details of the Outline, to be filled up afterwards, and from
system. time to time, by legislation. The idea is
most plainly carried out in the Federal justiciary : the
Constitution only directs that there shall be a Supreme
Court, and marks out the general jurisdiction of all the
courts, leaving Congress, under the restriction of the
President's veto power, to build up the system of courts
which shall best carry out the design of the Constitution.
But the same idea is visible in every department, and it
has carried the Constitution safely through a century
which has radically altered every other civilized govern-
ment. It has combined elasticity with the limitations
necessary to make democratic government successful
over a vast territory, having infinitely diverse interests,
and needing, more than almost anything else, positive
opportunities for sober second thought by the people.
A sudden revolution of popular thought or feeling is
enough to change the house of representatives from top
to bottom ; it must continue for several years before it
can make a radical change in the senate, and for years
longer before it can carry this change through the judi-
ciary, which holds for life ; and all these changes must
take place before the full effects upon the laws or Consti-
tution are accomplished. But the minor changes which
are essential to an accommodation with the growth and
development of a great nation are reached in the mean-
time easily and naturally in the course of legislation, to
which the skeleton outline of the Constitution lends itself
kindly. The members of the convention of 1787 showed
their wisdom most plainly in not trying to do too much ;
if they had done more they would have done far less.
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. Ill
130. The convention adjourned ITth. September, 1787,
having adopted the Constitution. Its last step was a res-
olution that the Constitution be sent to the submission to
Congress of the Confederation, with the rec- congress.
ommendation that it be submitted to conventions elected
by the people of each State for ratification or rejection ;
that, if nine States should ratify it, Congress should
appoint days for the popular election of electors, for the
choice of President and Vice-President by the electors,
and for the meeting of senators and representatives to be
chosen under the new plan of government ; and that then
the new Congress and President should, " without delay,
proceed to execute this Constitution." Congress, having
received the report of the convention, resolved that it be
sent to the several legislatures, to be submitted to con-
ventions ; and this was all the approval the Constitution
ever received from Congress. Both Congress and the
convention were careful not to open the dangerous ques-
tion, How was a government which was not to be changed
but by the legislatures of all the States to be entirely
supplanted by a different system through the approval of
conventions in three-fourths of them ? They left such
questions to be opened, if at all, in the less public forum
of the legislatures.
131. Before the end of the year Delaware, Pennsyl-
vania, and New Jersey had ratified ; and Georgia, Con-
necticut, and Massachusetts followed during:
Federalists
the first two months of 1788. Thus far the and Antifeder-
only strong opposition had been in Massachu- ^^^^^'
setts, a "large State." In it the struggle began between
Federalists and Antifederalists, between the friends and
the opponents of the Constitution, with its introduction of
a strong Federal power j and it raged in the conventions,
112 TEE UNITED STATES.
legislatures, newspapers, and pamphlets. The best of
the last was The Federalist, written mainly by Hamilton,
with the assistance of Madison and Jay, explaining the
new Constitution and defending it. As it was written
before the Constitution went into force, it speaks much
for the ability of its writers that it has passed into a
standard text-book of American constitutional law.
132. The seventh and eighth States — Maryland and
South Carolina — ratified in April and May, 1788 ; and,
while the conventions of Virginia and New
York were still wrangling over the great ques-
tion, the ninth State, New Hampshire, ratified, and the
Constitution passed out of theory into fact. This left the
other States in an unpleasant position. The Antifeder-
alists of the Virginia and New York conventions offered
conditional ratifications of all sorts ; but the Federalists
stubbornly refused to consider them, and at last, by very
slender majorities, these two States ratified. North
Carolina refused to ratify the Constitution, and Ehode
Island refused even to consider it (§ 145). Congress
named the first Wednesday of January, 1789, as the day
for the choice of electors, the first Wednesday in Febru-
ary for the choice of President and Vice-President, and
the first Wednesday in March for the inaugu-
ration of the new Government at New York
city. The last date fell on the 4th of March, which
has been the limit of each "Pi-esident's term since that
time.
133. When the votes of the electors were counted be-
fore Congress, it was found that Washington had been
Fall of the unanimously elected President, and that John
Confederation. Adams, staudlug ucxt ou the list, was Vice-
President. Long before the inauguration the Congress
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 113
of the Confederation had expired of mere inanition ; its
attendance simply ran down until (October 21, 1788) its
record ceased, and the United States got on without any
national Government for nearly six months. The strug-
gle for nationality had been successful, and the old order
faded out of existence.
134. The first census (1790) followed so closely upon
the inauguration of the Constitution that the country
may fairly be said to have had a population of nearly four
millions in 1789. Something over half a million of these
were slaves of African birth or blood. Slavery of this
sort had taken root in all the colonies, its slavery in the
original establishment being everywhere by umted states,
custom, not by law. When the custom had been sufii-
ciently established statutes came in to regulate a relation
already existing. Indented servants came only for a
term of years, and then were free. Slaves were not vol-
untary immigrants : they had come as chattels, not as per-
sons, and had no standing in law, and the law fastened
their condition on their children. But it is not true, as
the Dred Scott decision held long afterwards (§ 249),
that the belief that slaves were chattels simply, things
not persons, held good at the time of the adoption of the
Constitution. Times had changed somewhat. The pecu-
liar language of the Constitution itself, describing slaves
as " persons held to service or labor, under the laws of
any State," puts the general feeling exactly : they were
persons from whom the laws of some of the States with-
held personal rights for the time. In accordance with
this feeling most of the Northern States were on the high
road towards abolition of slavery. Vermont Abolition in the
had never allowed it. In Massachusetts it "o"^^-
was swept out by a summary court decision that it was
114 THE UNITED STATES.
irreconcilable with the new State constitution. Other
States soon began systems of gradual abolition, which
finally extinguished slavery north of Virginia, but so grad-
ually that there were still eighteen apprentices for life in
New Jersey in 1860, the last remnants of the former slave
system. In the new States north of the Ohio slavery was
prohibited by the Ordinance of 1787 (§ 96), and the pro-
hibition was maintained in spite of many attempts to get
rid of it and introduce slavery.
135. The sentiment of thinking men in the south was
Feeling in the ©xactly the samc, or in some cases more bitter
south. from their personal entanglement with the
system. Jefferson's language as to slavery is irrecon-
cilable with the chattel notion ; no abolitionist agitator
ever used warmer language than he as to the evils of
slavery, and the expression, " our brethren," used by him
of the slaves, is conclusive. Washington, Mason, and
other Southern men were as warm against slavery as
Jefferson, and societies for the abolition of slavery were
very common in the south. No thinking man could face
with equanimity the future problem of holding a separ
rate race of millions in slavery. Like most slave laws,
the laws of the Southern States were harsh : rights were
almost absolutely withheld from the slave, and punish-
ments of the severest kind were legal ; but the execution
of the system was milder than its legal possibilities
might lead one to imagine. The country was as yet so
completely agricultural, and agriculture felt so few of the
effects of large production and foreign commerce, that
southern slavery kept all the patriarchal features possi-
ble to such a system.
136. Indeed, the whole country was almost exclusively
agricultural, and, in spite of every effort to encourage
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 115
manufactures by State bounties and colonial protection,
they formed the meagre st element in the national pro-
duction. Connecticut, which now teems with . . .
' . . Agricult-jre,
manufactures, was just beginning the produc- commerce, and
tion of tinware and clocks ; Ehode Island and '"^""f^^^^^^^-
Massachusetts were just beginning to work in cotton
from models of jennies and Arkwright machinery sur-
reptitiously obtained from England after several failures
and in evasion of penal Acts of parliament ; and other
States, beyond local manufactures of paper, glass, and
iron, were almost entirely agricultural, or were engaged
in industries directly dependent on agriculture. Com-
merce was dependent on agriculture for exports ; and
manufactured imports were enough to drown out every
other form of industry.
137. There were but four cities in the United States
having a population of more than 10,000 — Philadel-
phia (42,000), New York (33,000), Boston changes since
(18,000), and Baltimore (13,000). The pop- '^^o-
ulation of the city of Kew York and its dependencies is
now more than half as large as that of the whole United
States in 1789 ; the State of New York or of Pennsyl-
vania has now more inhabitants than the United States
in 1790 ; and the new States of Ohio and Illinois, which
had hardly any white inhabitants in 1789, do not fall
far behind. Imports have swollen from $23,000,000 to
$650,000,000, exports from $20,000,000 to $700,000,000,
since 1790. The revenues of the new Government in 1790
were $4,000,000 ; they have now grown to $300,000,000
or more. The expenditures of the Government, exclud-
ing interest on the public debt, were but $1,000,000 in
1790, where now they are $200,000,000 or upwards per an-
num. It is not easy for the modern American to realize
116 THE UNITED STATES.
the poverty and weakness of Ms country at the inauguraA
tion of the new system of government, however he may
realize the simplicity of the daily life of its people.
Even the few large cities were but larger collections of
the wooden houses, with few comforts, which composed
the villages; the only advantage of their inhabitants
over those of the villages was in the closer proximity to
their neighbors ; and but a little over three per cent, of
the population had this advantage, against about twenty-
five per cent, in 1880.
138. Outside the cities communication was slow. One
stage a week was enough for the connection between the
great cities ; and communication elsewhere
Communication. , , , . , rj-ii .
depended on private conveyance. The great
rivers by which the continent is penetrated in every
direction were with difficulty ascended by sailing vessels
or boats ; and the real measure of communication was
thus the daily speed of a man or a horse on roads bad
beyond present conception. The western set-
tlements were just beginning to make the
question more serious. Enterprising land companies
were the moving force which had impelled the passage
of the Ordinance of 1787 ; and the first column of their
settlers was pouring into Ohio and forming connection
with their predecessors in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Marietta and Cincinnati (at first a Government fort,
and named after the society of the Cincinnati) had been
founded. But the intending settlers were obliged to
make the journey down the Ohio river from Pittsburgh
in bullet-proof flat-boats, for protection against the Indi-
ans, and the return trip depended on the use of oars. Eoi
more than twenty years these flat-boats were the chief
means of river commerce in the west ; and, in the longer
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 117
trips, as to New Orleans, the boats were generally broken
up at the end and sold for lumber, the crew making the
trip home on foot or on horseback. John Fitch and
others were already experimenting on what was soon to
be the steamboat (§ 167); but the statesman of 1789,
looking at the task of keeping under one Government a
country of such distances, with such difficulties of com-
munication, may be pardoned for having felt anxiety as
to the future. To almost all thinking men of the time
the Constitution was an experiment, and the unity of
the new nation a subject for very serious doubt.
139. The comparative isolation of the people every-
where, the lack of books, the poverty of the schools and
newspapers, were all influences which worked
strongly against any pronounced literary de-
velopment. Poems, essays, and paintings were feeble
imitations of European models ; history was annalistic,
if anything; and the drama hardly existed. In two
points the Americans were strong, and had done good
work. Such men as Jonathan Edwards had excelled in
various departments of theology, and American preaching
had reached a high degree of quality and influence ; and,
in the line of politics, the American state-papers rank
among the very best of their kind. Having a very clear
perception of their political purposes, and having been
restricted in study and reading to the great masters of
pure and vigorous English, and particularly to the Eng-
lish translators of the Bible, the American leaders came
to their work with an English style which could hardly
have been improved. The writings of Franklin, Wash-
ington, the Adamses, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jay,
and others show the secret of their strength in every
page. Much the same reasons, with the influences of
118 THE UNITED STATES.
democracy, brought oratory, as represented by Patrick
Henry, Fisher Ames, John Eandolph, and others, to a
point not very far below the mark afterwards reached by
Daniel Webster. The effect of these facts on the subse-
quent development of the country is not often estimated
at its full value. All through an immigration of every
language and dialect under heaven the English language
has been protected in its supremacy by the necessity of
going back to the " fathers of the republic " for the first,
and often the complete, statement of principles in every
great political struggle, social problem, or lawsuit.
140. The cession of the "north-west territory" by
Virginia and New York had been followed up by similar
Limits of set- ccssious by Massachusctts (1785), Connecticut
tiement. (1786), and South Carolina (1787). North
Carolina did not cede Tennessee until late in 1789, nor
Georgia her western claims until 1802. Settlement in
all these regions was hardly advanced beyond what it
had been at the outbreak of the revolution. The centres
of western settlement, in Tennessee and Kentucky, had
merely become more firmly established, and a new one,
in Ohio, had just been begun. The whole western limits
of settlement of the old thirteen States had moved much
nearer their present boundaries ; and the acquisition of
the western title, with the liberal policy of organization
and government which had been begun, was to have its
first clear effects during the first decade of the new Gov-
ernment. Almost the only obstacle to its earlier success
had been the doubts as tc the attitude which the Spanish
authorities, at New Orleans and Madrid, would take
The Mississippi towards the new settlements. They had
river. already asserted a claim that the Mississippi
was an exclusively Spanish stream from its mouth up to
THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL GOVERNMENT. 119
the Yazoo, and that no American boat should be allowed
to sail on it. To the western settler the Alleghanies and
bad roads were enough to cut him off from any other way
to a market than down the Mississippi ; and it was not
easy to restrain him from a forcible defiance of the
Spanish claim. The Northern States were willing to al-
low the Spanish claim in return for a commercial treaty ;
the Southern States and the western settlers protested
angrily ; and once more the spectre of dissolution appeared,
not to be laid again until the new Government had made
a treaty with Spain in 1795, securing common navigation
of the Mississippi.
141. All contemporary authorities agree that a marked
change had come over the people since 1775, and few of
them seem to think the change one for the social condi-
better. Many attribute it to the looseness of *'°"5'
manners and morals introduced by the Erench and British
soldiers ; others to the general effects of war ; a few,
Tories all, to the demoralizing effects of rebellion. The
successful establishment of nationality would be enough
to explain most of it ; and if we remember that the new
nation had secured its title to a vast western territory, of
unknown but rich capacities, which it was now moving
to reduce to possession by emigration, it would seem far
more strange if the social conditions had not been some-
what disturbed.
120 THE UmTED STATES.
VI.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCEACY.
1789-1831.
142. All the tendencies of political institutions in the
United States had certainly been towards democracy ;
but it cannot be said that the leadinsj men
Democracy °
in the United wcrc hearty or unanimous in their agreement
^^^^^^' with this tendency. Not a few of them
were pronounced republicans even before 1775, but the
mass of them had no great objection to a monarchical
form of government until the war-spirit had converted
them. The Declaration of Independence had been di-
rected rather against the king than against a king. Even
after popular sovereignty had pronounced against a king,
class spirit was for some time a fair substitute for aris-
tocracy. The obstacles to communication, which com-
pelled the mass of the people to live a very isolated
existence, gave abnormal prominence and influence to
those who, by ability or wealth, could overcome these
obstacles ; and common feeling made these a class, with
many symptoms of strong class feelings. As often
happens, democracy at least thought of a Caesar when
it apprehended class control. The discontented officers of
the revolutionary armies offered to make Washington
king, though he put the offer by without even consider-
ing it. The suggestion of a return to monarchy in some
form, as a possible road out of the confusion of the
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 121
Confederation, occurs in the correspondence of some of
the leading men. And while the convention of 1787 was
holding its secret sessions a rumor went out that it had
decided to offer a crown to an English prince.
143. The State constitutions were democratic, ex-
cept for property or other restrictions on the right of
suffrage, or provisions carefully designed to Dg^o^rac
keep the control of at least one house of the in the states ;
State legislature " in the hands of property.'' in the Consti-
The Federal Constitution was so drawn that it *''^'°"'
would have lent itself kindly either to class control or to
democracy. The electoral system of choosing the Presi-
dent and Vice-President was altogether anti-democratic,
though democracy has conquered it : not an elector, since
1796, has disobeyed the purely moral claim of his party
to control his choice (§§ 119, 120). Since the senate
was to be chosen by the State legislatures, '^ property,"
if it could retain its influence in those bodies, could
control at least one house of Congress. The question
whether the Constitution was to have a democratic or an
anti-democratic interpretation was to be settled in the
next twelve years.
144. The States were a strong factor in the final
settlement, from the fact that the Constitution had left
to them the control of the elective franchise : they were
to make its conditions what each of them saw fit. Ee-
ligious tests for the right of suffrage had been quite
common in the colonies ; property tests were almost
universal. The former disappeared shortly after the
revolution ; the latter survived in some of the States far
into the constitutional period. But the desire influence of im-
to attract immigration was always a strong im- migration.
pelling force to induce States, especially frontier States,
122 THE UNITED STATES.
to make the acquisition of full citizenship and political
rights as easy and rapid as possible. This force was not
so strong at first as it was after the great stream of
immigration began about 1848 (§ 236), but it was enough
to tend constantly to the development of democracy ; and
it could not but react on the national development. In
later times, when State laws allow the immigrant to vote
even before the period assigned by Federal laws allows
him to become a naturalized citizen, there have been
demands for the modification of the ultra State democ-
racy ; but no such danger was apprehended in the first
decade.
145. The Antifederalists had been a political party,
but a party with but one principle. The absolute fail-
ure of that principle deprived the party of all cohesion ;
. . and the Federalists controlled the first two
Organization
of the new Gov- Congrcsscs almost entirely. Their pronounced
ernment. ^j^Qi^y ^g^g ghowu iu their Organizing meas-
ures, which still govern the American system very largely.
The departments of state, of the treasury, of war, of
justice, and of the post-office were rapidly and success-
fully organized ; Acts were passed for the regulation of
seamen, commerce, tonnage duties, lighthouses, inter-
course with the Indians, Territories, and the militia;
a national capital was selected; a national bank was
chartered ; the national debt was funded, and the State
debts were assumed as part of it. The first four years of
the new system showed that the States had now to deal
with a very different power from the impotent Congress
of the Confederation. The new power was even able to
exert a pressure upon the two States which had not yet
ratified the Constitution, though, in accordance with the
universal American prejudice, the pressure was made as
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 123
gentle as possible. As a first step, the higher duties
imposed on imports from foreign countries were ex-
pressly directed to apply to imports from North Carolina
and Ehode Island. North Carolina having called a
second convention, her case was left to the course of
nature ; and the second convention ratified the Constitu-
tion (November 21, 1789) . The Ehode Island legislature
wrote to ask that their State might not be considered
altogether foreigners, made their duties agree with those
of the new Government, and reserved the proceeds for
"continental" purposes. Still no further steps were
taken. A bill was therefore introduced directing the
President to suspend commercial intercourse with Ehode
Island, and to demand from her her share of the con-
tinental debt. This was passed by the senate, and waited
but two steps further to become law. Unofficial news-
paper proposals to divide up the little State between her
two nearest neighbors were stopped by her ratification
(May 29, 1790). All the "old thirteen" were thus
united under the Constitution ; and yet, so completion of
strong is the American prejudice for the au- ^^^ ^"'°"-
tonomy of the States that these last two were allowed to
enter in the full conviction that they did so in the exer-
cise of sovereign freedom of choice. Their entrance,
however, was no more involuntary than that of others. If
there had been real freedom of choice, nine States would
never have ratified: the votes of Pennsylvania, Massa-
chusetts, New Hampshire, Virginia, and New York were
only secured by the pressure of powerful minorities in
their own States, backed by the almost unanimous votes
of the others.
146. Protection was begun in the first Tariff Act,
whose object, said its preamble, was the protection of
124 THE UNITED STATES.
domestic manufactures. The duties, however, ranged
only from 7^ to 10 per cent, averaging about 8^ per
Hamiitonian ccut. The sjstem, too, had rather a polit-
protection. [q^\ than au economic basis. Until 1789
the States had controlled the imposition of duties. The
separate State feeling was a factor so strong that seces-
sion was a possibility which every statesman had to take
into account. Hamilton's object, in introducing the
system, seems to have been to create a class of manu-
facturers, running through all the States, but dependent
for prosperity on the new Federal Government and its
tariff. This would be a force which would make strongly
for national Government, and against any attempt at
secession, or against the tendency to revert in practice to
the old system of control by State legislatures, even
though it based the national idea on a conscious ten-
dency towards the development of classes. The same
feeling seems to have been at the bottom of his establish-
ment of a national bank, his assumption of State debts,
and most of the general scheme which his influence
forced upon the Federal party.
147. In forming his cabinet, Washington had paid
attention to the opposing elements which had united
for the temporary purpose of ratifying the
'^^'^'''' '"'"'"''• Constitution. The national element was
represented by Hamilton, secretary of the treasury,
and Knox, secretary of war; the particularist element
(using the term to indicate support of the States,
not of a State) by Jefferson, secretary of state, and
Edmund Eandolph, attorney-general. It was not long
before the drift of opinion in cabinet meetings showed
an irreconcilable divergence, on almost every subject,
between these two elements, and Hamilton and Jeft'erson
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 125
became the representatives of the two opposite tenden-
cies which have together made up the sum of public
American history. At the end of 1792 matters were in
train for the general recognition of the existence of two
parties, whose struggles were to decide the course of the
Constitution's development. The occasion came in the
opening of the following year, when the new nation was
first brought into contact with the French Revolution.
148. The controlling tendency of Jefferson and his
school was to the maintenance of individual rights at
the highest possible point, as the Hamilton
school was always ready to assert the national son school of
power to restrict individual rights for the p°''^'^s.
general good. Other points of difference are rather
symptomatic than essential. The Jefferson school sup-
ported the States, not out of love for the States, but out
of a belief that the States were the best bulwarks for
individual rights. When the French Revolution began
its usual course in America by agitating for the " rights
of man," it met a sympathetic audience in the Jefferson
party and a cold and unsympathetic hearing from the
Hamilton school of Federalists. The latter were far
more interested in securing the full recognition of the
power and rights of the nation than in securing the
individual against imaginary dangers, as they thought
them. For ten years, therefore, the surface marks of
distinction between the two parties were to be con-
nected with the course of events in Europe; but the
essence of distinction was not in the surface marks.
149. The new Government was not yet four years
old ; it was not familiar, nor of assured jhe Hamilton
permanency. The only national Governments ^'^^°°'-
of which Americans had had previous experience were
126 THE UNITED STATES.
the Britisli Government and the Confederation; in the
former they had had no share, and the latter had had no
power. The only places in which they had had long-
continued, full, and familiar experience of self-govern-
ment were their State Governments ; these were the
only governmental forms which were then distinctly
associated in their minds with the general notion of
republican government. The governing principle of the
Hamilton school, that the construction or interpretation
of the terms of the Constitution was to be such as to
broaden the powers of the Federal Government, neces-
sarily involved a corresponding trenching on the powers
of the States (§ 106). It was natural, then, that the
Jefferson school should look on every feature of the
Hamilton programme as " anti-republican," meaning,
probably, at first no more than opposed to the State
system as, hitherto known, though, with the growth of
political bitterness, the term soon came to imply some-
thing of monarchical, and, more particularly, of English
tendencies. The disposition of the Jefferson school to
claim for themselves a certain peculiar title to the posi-
tion of "republicans" soon developed into the appear-
ance of the first Kepublican party, about 1793.
150. Many of the Federalists were shrewd and active
business men, who naturally took prompt advantage of
the opportunities which the new system
a y I erences. ^£^^^.^^1^^ rj^j^^ Rcpublicans thcrcforc bcHeved
and asserted that the whole Hamilton programme was
dictated by selfish or class interest; and they added
this to the accusation of monarchical tendencies. These
charges, with the fundamental differences of mental
constitution, exasperated by the passion which differ-
ences as to the French devolution seemed to carry with
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 127
them everywhere, made the political history of this
decade a very unpleasant record. The provision for
establishing the national capital on the Potomac (1790)
was declared to have been carried by a cor-
rupt bargain ; and accusations of corruption capital.
were renewed at every opportunity. In 1793
'J ^ ^ ^ _ Genet s mission.
a French agent, Genet, appeared to claim the
assistance of the United States for the French republic.
Washington decided to issue a proclamation of neutral-
ity, the first act of the kind in American history. It
was the first indication, also, of the policy which has
made the course of every President, with the exception
of Polk (§ 223), a determined leaning to peace, even
when the other branches of the Government have been
intent on war. The proclamation of 1793 brought about
the first distinctly party feeling ; and it was jhe whiskey
intensified by Washington's charge that insurrection.
popular opposition in western Pennsylvania (1794) to
the new excise law had been fomented by the extreme
French party. Their name. Democrat, was applied by
the Federalists to the whole Republican party as a term
of contempt, but it was not accepted by the party for
some twenty years ; then the compound title of " Demo-
cratic-Republican " became, as it still is, the official title
of the party. There was no party opposition. Admission of
however, to the re-election of Washine^ton in Vermont Ken-
-" _ _ '^ tucky, and Ten-
1792, or to the admission of Vermont (1791), nessee.
Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796) as new States.
151, The British Government had accredited no min-
ister to the United States, and it refused to make any
commercial treaty or to give up the forts in the western
territory of the United States, through which its agents
still exercised a commanding influence over the Indians.
128 THE UNITED STATES.
In the course of its war with France, the neutral American
vessels, without the protection of a national navy, fared
badly. A treaty negotiated by Chief -Justice
Jay's treaty. ^^^ (1794) settled thcsc difficulties for the
following ten years. But, as it engaged the United
States against any intervention in the war on behalf of
France, and as it granted some unfamiliar privileges to
Great Britain, particularly that of extradition, the Eepub-
licans made it very unpopular, and the first personal
attacks on Washington's popularity grew out of it. In
spite of occasional Eepublican successes, the Federalists
retained a general control of national affairs ; they elected
John Adams President in 1796, though Jeffer-
■ son was chosen Vice-President with him ; and
the national policy of the Federalists kept the country
out of entangling alliances with any of the European
belligerents. To the Eepublicans, and to the French
republic, this last point of policy was only a practical
intervention against France and against the rights of
man.
152. At the end of Washington's administration the
French Directory, following up its successes in Germany
and Italy and its exactions from conquered powers, broke
off relations with the United States, demanding the abro-
gation of Jay's treaty and a more pronounced sympathy
The"x.Y.z." with Frauco. Adams sent three envoys to
mission, endeavor to re-establish the former relations ;
they were met by official or unofficial demands for "money,
a great deal of money," as a prerequisite to peace. They
refused; their letters home were published; and the
Federalists at last had the opportunity of riding the
whirlwind of an intense popular desire for war with
France. Intercourse with France was suspended by Con-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 129
gress (1798) ; the treaties with France were declared at
an end : American frigates were authorized to capture
French vessels guilty of depredations on American com-
merce, and the President was authorized to issue letters
of marque and reprisal; and an American army was
formed, Washington being called from his retirement at
Mount Vernon to command it. The war Quasi-war with
never went beyond a few sea-fights, in which France,
the little American navy did itself credit, and Napoleon,
seizing power the next year, renewed the peace which
should never have been broken. But the quasi-war had
internal consequences to the young republic which sur-
passed in interest all its foreign difficulties : it brought
on the crisis which settled the development of the United
States towards democracy.
153. The reaction in Great Britain against the indefinite
" rights of man " had led parliament to pass an alien law,
a sedition law suspending the writ of habeas Error of the
co7'pus, and an Act giving wide and scarcely Federalists.
defined powers to magistrates for the dispersion of meet-
ings to petition for redress of grievances. The Feder-
alists were in control of a Congress of limited powers ;
but they were strongly tempted by sympathies and antip-
athies of every sort to form their programme on the
model furnished from England. The measures which
they actually passed were based only on that construction
of the Constitution which is at the bottom of all Amer-
ican politics ; they only tended to force the Constitution
into an anti-democratic direction. But it was the fixed
belief of their opponents that they meant to go farther,
— to forget the limitations imposed by the ten years' old
Constitution, and to secure their own control by some
wholesale measure of political persecution.
130 THE UNITED STATES.
154. Three alien laws were passed. The first raised
the number of years necessary for naturalization from
^^ .,. five to fourteen. The third permitted the
The Alien ^
and Sedition arrest of subjects of any foreign power with
^^'^^' which the United States should be at war.
The second, which is usually known as the Alien Law,
was limited to a term of two years ; it permitted the
President to arrest or order out of the country any alien
whom he should consider dangerous to the country. As
many of the Republican editors and local leaders were
aliens, this law really put the whole Republican organiza-
tion in the power of the President elected by their oppo-
nents. The Sedition Law made it a crime, punishable
by fine and imprisonment, to publish or print any false,
scandalous, and malicious writings against the Govern-
ment of the United States, either house of Congress, or
the President, with intent to defame them, or to bring
them into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against
them the hatred of the good people of the United States,
or to stir up sedition or opposition to any lawful Act of
Congress or of the President, or to aid the designs of any
foreign power against the United States. In its first
form the bill was even more loose and sweeping than
this, and alarmed the opposition thoroughly.
155. Almost all the ability of the country was in the
Federalist ranks ; the Republicans had but two first-rate
men — Jefferson and Madison. In the sudden
The
Republican issuc thus forccd bctweeu individual rights
opposition. ^^^ national power, Jefferson and Madison
could find but one bulwark for the individual — the
power of the States; and their use of it gave their
party a permanent list to State sovereignty from which it
did not recover for years. They objected to the Alien
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 131
Law on the grounds that aliens were under the jurisdic-
tion of the State, not of the Federal Government ; that
the jurisdiction over them had not been transferred to
the Federal Government by the Constitution, and that the
assumption of it by Congress was a violation of the Con-
stitution's reservation of powers to the States ; and,
further, because the Constitution reserved to every " per-
son," not to every citizen, the right to a jury trial (§ 127).
They objected to the Sedition Law on the grounds that
the Constitution had specified exactly the four crimes for
whose punishment Congress was to provide ; that crim-
inal libel was not one of them ; and that Amendment I.
forbade Congress to pass any law restricting freedom of
speech or of the press. The Federalists asserted a com-
mon-law power in Federal judges to punish for libel, and
pointed to a provision in the Sedition Law permitting
the truth to be given in evidence, as an improvement on
the common law, instead of a restriction on individual
liberty.
156. The Republican objections might have been made
in court, on the first trial. But the Republican leaders
had strong doubts of the impartiality of the
Federal judges, who were Federalists. They and Kentucky
resolved to intrench the party in the State ^^^°'"^'°"^-
legislatures. The Virginia legislature in 1789 passed a
series of resolutions prepared by Madison, and the Ken-
tucky legislature in the same year passed a series pre-
pared by Jefferson. Neglected or rejected by the other
States, they were passed again by their legislatures in
1799, and were for a long time the documentary basis of
the Democratic party (§ 320). The leading idea ex-
pressed in both was that the Constitution was a " com-
pact" between the States, and that the powers (the
132 THE UNITED STATES.
States) which, had made the compact had reserved the
power to restrain the creature of the compact, the Fed-
eral Government, whenever it undertook to assume pow-
ers not granted to it. Madison's idea seems to have been
that the restraint was to be imposed by a second conven-
tion of the States. Jefferson's idea is more doubtful ;
if it meant that the restraint should be imposed by any
State which should feel aggrieved, his scheme was merely
Calhoun's idea of nullification (§ 206); but there are
some indications that he agreed with Madison.
157. The first Congress of Adams's term of office
ended in 1799. Its successor, elected in the heat of the
war excitement, kept the Federalist policy up to its first
Effects of the pitch. Out of Cougrcss the execution of the
'^'^^- objectionable laws had taken the shape of po-
litical persecution. Men were arrested, tried, and punished
for writings which the people had been accustomed to
consider quite within legitimate political methods. Some
of the charges were petty, and some ridiculous. The
Eepublican leaders made every trial as public as possi-
ble, and gained votes constantly, so that the Federalists
began to be shy of the very powers which they had
sought. Every new election was a storm-signal for the
Federal party; and the danger was increased by the
appearance of schism in their own ranks.
158. Hamilton was now a private citizen of New York;
but he had the confidence of his party more largely than
Federalist its uomiual head, the President, and he main-
schism. tained close and confidential relations with
the cabinet which Adams had taken unchanged from
Washington. The Hamilton faction saw no way of pre-
serving and consolidating the newly acquired powers of
the Federal Government but by keeping up and increas-
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 133
ing tlie war feeling against France; Adams had the
instinctive leaning of an American President towards
peace. Amid cries of wrath and despair from his party
he accepted the first overtures of the new Napoleonic
Government, sent envoys to negotiate a peace, and ordered
them to depart for France when they delayed too long.
Then, discovering flat treachery in his cabinet, he dis-
missed it and blurted out a public expression of his feel-
ing that Hamilton and his adherents were "a British
faction." Hamilton retorted with a circular letter to his
party friends, denouncing the President ; the Eepublicans
intercepted it and gave it a wider circulation than its
author had intended ; and the Hamilton faction tried so
to arrange the electoral vote that Pinckney should be
chosen President in 1800 and Adams should
, 111-,.! • -1 -r-< Election of 1800.
be shelved into the vice-presidency. Even so,
the Federal party barely missed success. As things turned
out, the result depended on the electoral vote of New
York; and Aaron Burr, who had introduced the drill
and machinery of a modern American political party
there, had made the State Republican and secured a ma-
jority for the Eepublican candidates. There was an effort
by the Federalists to disappoint the Eepublicans by mak-
ing Burr President; but Jefferson obtained that office,
Burr becoming Vice-President for four years (§ 120).
159. The "revolution of 1800" decided the future
development of the United States. The new dominant
party entered upon its career weighted with .. Revolution of
the theory of State sovereignty ; and a civil '^°°-"
war was necessary before this dogma, put to use again
in the service of slavery, could be banished from the
American system. But the democratic development
never was checked. From that time the interpretation
134 THE UNITED STATES.
of the Federal Constitution has generally favored indi-
vidual rights at the expense of governmental power. As
the Eepublicans obtained control of the States they
altered the State constitutions so as to cut out all the
arrangements that favored property or class interests,
and reduced political power to the dead level of manhood
suffrage. In most of the States outside of New England
this process was completed before 1815 ; but New Eng-
land tenacity was proof against the advancing revolution
until about 1820. Eor twenty years after its downfall of
1800 the Federal party maintained its hopeless strug-
gle, and then it faded away into nothing, leaving as its
permanent memorial the excellent organization of the
Federal Government, which its successful rival hardly
changed. Its two successors — the Wliig and the second
Eepublican party — have been broad-constructionist par-
ties, like the Federal party, but they have admitted
democracy as well; the Whig party adopted popular
methods at least, and the Republican party grew into a
theory of individual rights even higher than Jefferson's
— the emancipation of enslaved labor.
160. The disputed election of 1800 was decided in the
new capital city of Washington, to which the Government
had just been removed. Its streets and
e new capi o . ^^^-^^ Bxlstcd ouly ou papcr. The capitol
had been begun ; the White House was unfinished, and
its audience room, was used by Mrs. Adams as a drying
room for clothes ; and the Congressmen could hardly find
lodgings. The inconveniences were only an exaggeration
of the condition of other American cities. Their sani-
tary conditions were so bad that yellow fever from time
to time reduced them almost to depopulation. Again
and again, during this decade, the fever visited Phila^
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 135
delphia and New York, drove out the people, and left tlie
grass growing in the streets. The communication be-
tween the cities was still as bad as could be. The travellei
was subject to every danger or annoyance
that bad roads, bad carriages, bad horses, bad
inns, and bad police protection could combine to inflict
upon him. But the rising spirit of migration seemed to
urge the peoj)le to conquer these difficulties. The first
attempts were made to introduce turnpike roads and
canals ; and proposals were advanced for greater improve-
ments. The war with natural obstacles had fairly begun,
though it had little prospect of success until steam was
brought into use as the ally of man.
161. About this time the term "the West" appears.
It meant then the western part of New York State, the
new territory north of the Ohio, and Kentucky
. . The West.
and Tennessee. In settling land boundaries
New York had transferred to Massachusetts, whose claims
crossed her territory, the right to a large tract of land in
central New York. The sale of this had carried popula-
tion considerably west of the Hudson. After several
American expeditions against the Ohio Indians had been
defeated, another under General Anthony Wayne (1794)
had compelled them to give up all the territory now in
the State of Ohio. Settlement received a new impetus
with increased security, and the new state of affairs
added to the population of Kentucky, whose growth had
been seriously checked by periodical attacks from the
Indians across the Ohio. Between 1790 and 1800 the
population of Ohio had risen from almost nothing to
45,000, that of Tennessee from 36,000 to 106,000, and that
of Kentucky from 74,000 to 221,000— the last-named
State now exceeding five of the " old thirteen " in popu-
136 THE UNITED STATES.
lation. The difficulties of the western emigrant, how-
ever, were still enormous. He obtained land of his own,
fertile land and plenty of it, but little else. The produce
of the soil had to be consumed at home, or near it ; ready-
money was scarce and distant products scarcer ; and
comforts, except the very rudest substitutes of home
manufacture, were unobtainable. The new life bore
most hardly upon women ; and, if the record of woman's
share in the work of American colonization could be fully
made up, the price paid for the final success would seem
very great.
162. The number of post-offices rose during these ten
years from 75 to 903, the miles of post-routes from 1900
to 21,000, and the revenue from $38,000 to
$231,000. These figures seem small in com-
parison with the 25,000 post-offices, 375,000 miles of
post-routes, and $45,000,000 of revenue of 1887, but the
comparison with the figures of 1790 shows a development
in which the new Constitution, with its increased security,
must have been a factor.
163. The power of Congress to regulate patents was
already bearing fruit. Until 1789 this power was in the
hands of the States, and the privileges of the
inventor were restricted to the territory of the
patenting State. Now he had a vast and growing terri-
tory within which all the profits of the invention were
his own, and that development began by which human
invention has been urged tp its highest point, as a factor
in the struggle against natural forces. Twenty patents
were issued in 1793, and 22,000 ninety years afterwards;
but one of the inventions of 1793, Whitney's cotton
gin, has affected the history of the United States more
than most of its wars or treaties.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY. 137
164. When the Constitution was adopted it was not
known that the cultivation of cotton could be made profit-
able in the Southern States. The " roller gin ^'
could clean only a half dozen pounds a day
by slave labor. In 1784 eight bags of cotton landed
ill Liverpool from an American ship, were seized on the
ground that so much cotton could not be the produce
of the United States. Eli Whitney, a Connecticut school-
teacher residing in Georgia, invented the saw-gin, by
which the cotton was dragged through parallel wires
with openings too narrow to allow the seeds to pass;
and one slave could now clean a thousand pounds a day.
The exports of cotton leaped from 189,000 pounds in 1791
to 21,000,000 pounds in 1801, and doubled in three years
more. The influence of this one invention, combined
with the wonderful series of British inventions which
had paved the way for it, can hardly be estimated in its
commercial aspects. Its political influences were even
wider, but more unhappy. The introduction of the
commercial element into the slave system of the south
robbed it at once of the partriarchal features which had
made it tolerable ; but, at the same time, it developed in
slave-holders a new disposition to uphold and defend a
system of slave labor as a " positive good." The aboli-
tion societies of the south began to dwindle as soon as
the results of Whitney's invention began to be manifest.
165. The development of a class whose profits were
merely the extorted natural wages of the black laborer
was certain; and its political power was slavery and
as certain, though it never showed itself democracy,
clearly until after 1830. And this class was to have a
peculiarly distorting effect on the political history of the
United States. Aristocratic in every sense but one, it was
138 THE UNITED STATES.
ultra-Democratic (in a purely party sense) in its devotion
to State sovereignty, for the legal basis of the slave sys-
tem was in the laws of the several States. In time, the
aristocratic element got control of the party which had
originally looked to State rights as a bulwark of indi-
vidual rights ; and the party was finally committed to
the employment of its original doctrine for an entirely
different purpose — the suppression of the black laborer's
wages.
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 139
VII.
DEMOCEACY AND NATIONALITY.
1801-29.
166. When Jefferson took office in 1801 he succeeded
to a task larger than he imagined. His party, ignoring
the natural forces which tied the States Democracy and
together even against their wills, insisted that nationality.
the legal basis of the bond was in the power of any State
to withdraw at will. This was no nationality ; and for-
eign nations naturally refused to take the American
national coin at any higher valuation than that at which
it was current in its own country. The urgent necessity
was for a reconciliation between democracy and nation-
ality ; and this was the work of this period. An under-
lying sense of all this has led Democratic leaders to call
the war of 1812-15 the " second war for independence '' ;
but the result was as much independence of past ideas as
of Great Britain.
167. The first force in the new direction was the
acquisition of Louisiana (§ 32) in 1803. Napoleon had
acquired it from Spain, and, fearing an attack
upon it by Great Britain, offered it to the
United States for $15,000,000. Jefferson and his party
were eager to accept the offer ; but the Constitution gave
the Federal Government no power to buy and hold terri-
tory, and the party was based on a strict construction of
the Constitution. Possession of power forced the strict-
140 TEE UNITED STATES.
construction party to broaden its ideas, and Louisiana
was bought, though Jefferson quieted his conscience by
talking for a time of a futile proposal to amend the Con-
stitution so as to grant the necessary power. The acqui-
sition of the western Mississippi basin more than doubled
the area of the United States, and gave them control of
all the great river-systems of central North America..
The difficulties of using these rivers were
■ removed almost immediately by Fulton's util-
ization of steam in navigation (1807). Within four
years steamboats were at work on western waters ; and
thereafter the increase of steam navigation and that of
population stimulated one another. Population crossed
the Mississippi ; constantly increasing eddies filled up the
vacant places to the east of the great river; and all
sections of the country advanced as they had never
Centre of advauccd bcforc. The "centre of population "
population, jjg^g ]3een carefully ascertained by the census
authorities for each decade, and it represents the west-
ward movement of population very closely. During this
period it advanced from about the middle of the State of
Maryland to its extreme western limit ; that is, the centre
of population was in 1830 nearly at the place which had
been the western limit of population in 1770.
168. Jefferson also laid the basis for a further acquisi-
tion in the future by sending an expedition under Lewis
The Oregon ^ud Clarkc to cxplorc the territory north of
country. j^^^q thcu Spauisli territory of California and
west of the Eocky Mountains — the " Oregon country " as
it was afterwards called (§§ 221, 224). The explorations
of this party (1804), with Captain Gray's discovery of
the Columbia river (1792), made the best part of the
claims of the United States to the country forty years
later.
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 141
169. Jefferson was re-elected in 1804, serving until
1809 ; his party now controlled almost all the States out-
side of New England, and could elect almost
, -i 1 J. j.T_ • 1 Election of 1804.
any one whom it chose to the presidency.
Imitating Washington in refusing a third term of office,
Jefferson established the precedent, which has not since
been violated, restricting a President to two terms, though
the Constitution contains no such restriction. The great
success of his presidency had been the acquisition of
Louisiana, which was a violation of his party principles;
but all his minor successes were, like this, recognitions
of the national sovereignty which he disliked so much.
After a short and brilliant naval war the Barbary pirates
were reduced to submission (1805). And the authority
of the nation was asserted for the first time in internal
affairs. The long-continued control of New Orleans by
Spain, and the persistent intrigues of the Spanish author-
ities, looking towards a separation of the whole western
country from the United States, had been ended by the
annexation of Louisiana, and they will probably remain
forever hidden in the secret history of the early west.
They had left behind a dangerous ignorance of Federal
power and control, of which Burr took advantage (1807).
Organizing an expedition in Kentucky and Tennessee,
probably for the conquest of the Spanish colony of
Mexico, he was arrested on the lower Mississippi and
brought back to Virginia. He was acquitted; but the
incident opened up a vaster view of the national authority
than democracy had yet been able to take. It had been
said, forty years before, that Great Britain had long arms,
but that 3000 miles was too far to extend them ; it was
something to know now that the arms of the Federal
Government were long enough to reach from Washington
city to the Mississippi.
142 THE UNITED STATES.
170. All the success of Jefferson was confined to his
first four years ; all his heavy failures were in his second
Difficulties with term, in which he and his party as persist-
Great Britain, ently rcfuscd to rccoguize or assert the inher-
ent power of the nation in international affairs. The
Jay treaty expired in 1804 by limitation, and American
commerce was thereafter left to the course of events,
without any restriction of treaty obligations, since Jeffer-
son refused to accept the only treaty which the British
Government was willing to make. All the difficulties
which followed may be summed up in a few words :
the British Government was then the representative of
the ancient system of restriction of commerce, and had
a powerful navy to enforce its ideas ; the American
Government was endeavoring to force into international
recognition the present system of neutral rights and
unrestricted commerce, but its suspicious democracy re-
fused to give it a navy sufficient to command respect for
its ideas. Indeed, the American Government did not
want the navy ; it apparently expected to gain its objects
without the exhibition of anything but moral force.
171. Great Britain was now at war, from time to
time, with almost every other nation of Europe. In
Neutral com- time of pcacc, Europcau nations followed gen-
merce. erally the old restrictive principle of allow-
ing another nation, like the United States, no commercial
access to their colonies ; but, when they were at war
with Great Britain, whose navy controlled the ocean,
they were very willing to allow the neutral American
merchantmen to carry away their surplus colonial prod-
uce. Great Britain had insisted for fifty years that the
neutral nation, in such cases, was really intervening in
the war as an ally of her enemy; but she had so far
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 143
modified her claim as to admit that " transshipment," or
breaking bulk, in the United States was enough to
qualify the commerce for recognition, no matter whither
it was directed after transshipment. The neutral nation
thus gained a double freight, and grew rich in the traffic ;
the belligerent nations no longer had commerce afloat
for British vessels to capture ; and the " frauds of the
neutral flags" became a standing subject of complaint
among British merchants and naval officers. About 1805,
British prize courts began to disregard transshipment,
and to condemn American vessels which had made the
voyage from a European colony to the mother country
by way of the United States. This was really a restric-
tion of American commerce to purely American produc-
tions, or to commerce with Great Britain direct, with
the payment of duties in British ports.
172. The question of expatriation, too, furnished a good
many burning grievances. Great Britain maintained the
old German rule of perpetual allegiance, though
she had modified it by allowing the right of ^^^ ^'^ '°""
emigration. The United States, founded by immigration,
was anxious to establish what Great Britain was not
disposed to grant, the right of the subject to divest him-
self of allegiance by naturalization under a foreign ju-
risdiction. Four facts thus tended to break off friendly
relations : (1) Great Britain's claim to allegiance over
American naturalized subjects ; (2) her claim to the
belligerent right of search of neutral vessels ; (3) her
claim or right to impress for her vessels of
-,-.,, T Impressment.
war her subjects who were seamen wherever
found; and (4) the difficulty of distinguishing native-
born Americans from British subjects, even if the right
to impress naturalized American subjects were granted.
144 THE UNITED STATES.
British, naval officers even undertook to throw the onus
probandi upon Americans — to consider all who spoke
the English language as British subjects, unless they
could produce proof that they were native-born Ameri-
cans. The American sailor who lost his papers was thus
open to impressment. The American Government in
1810 published the cases of such impressments since
1803, as numbering over 4000, about one-third of the
cases resulting in the discharge of the impressed man;
but no one could say how many cases had never been
brought to the attention of a Government which never
did anything more than remonstrate about them.
173. In May, 1806, the British Government, by orders
in council, declared a blockade of the whole continent of
Europe from Brest to the Elbe, about 800 miles.
Orders in coun- J^ '
cii. In November, after the battle of Jena, Napo-
Beriinand Icou auswcrcd by the "Berlin decree," in
Milan decrees. ^^^^-^ ^^ assumcd to blockadc the British
Isles, thus beginning his " continental system. '^ A year
later the British Government answered by further orders
in council, forbidding American trade with any country
from which the British flag was excluded, allowing direct
trade from the United States to Sweden only, in Ameri-
can products, and permitting American trade with other
parts of Europe only on condition of touching in Eng-
land and paying duties. Napoleon retorted with the
" Milan decree," declaring' good prize any vessel which
should submit to search by a British ship ; but this was
evidently a vain fulmination.
174. The Democratic party of the United States was
almost exclusively agricultural, and had little
^^^' knowledge of or sympathy with commercial
interests ; it had little confidence in the American navy j
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 145
it was pledged to the reduction of national expenses and
the debt, and did not wish to take on its shoulders the
responsibility for a navy ; and, as the section of country
most affected by the orders in council, ISTew England,
was Federalist, and made up the active and irreconcil-
able opposition, a tinge of political feeling could not but
color the decisions of the dominant party. Various
ridiculous proposals were considered as substitutes for
a necessarily naval war ; and perhaps the most ridiculous
was adopted. Since the use of non-intercourse agree-
ments as revolutionary weapons against Great Britain
(§ 50), an overweening confidence in such measures had
sprung up, and one of them was now resorted to — the
embargo (1807), forbidding foreign commerce
altogether. It was expected to starve Great
Britain into a change of policy ; and its effects may be
seen by comparing the $20,000,000 exports of 1790,
$49,000,000 of 1807, and $9,000,000 of 1808. It does
not seem to have struck those who passed the measure
that the agricultural districts also might find the change
unpleasant ; but that was the result, and their complaints
reinforced those of New England, and closed Jefferson's
second term in a cloud of recognized misfortune. The
pressure had been slightly relieved by the substitution
of the Non-intercourse Law (1809) for the Non-intercourse
embargo ; it prohibited intercourse with Great '^^•
Britain and France and their dependencies, leaving other
foreign commerce open ; but Madison, Jefferson's succes-
sor in 1808-9, assumed in the presidency a
, T 1-1 ^ • 1 1 -XT -T^ Election of 1808.
burden which was not enviable. JN ew Eng-
land was in a ferment, and was even suspected of designs
to resist the restrictive system by force (§ 180) ; and the
administration did not feel secure enough in its position
to face the future with confidence.
146 THE UNITED STATES.
175. The Non-intercourse Law was to be abandoned as
to either belligerent which should abandon its attacks on
neutral commerce, and maintained against the other. In
1810 Napoleon officially informed the American Govern-
ment that he had abandoned his system. He continued
to enforce it in fact; but his official fiction served its
purpose of limiting the non-intercourse for the future to
Great Britain, and thus straining relations between that
country and the United States still further. The elec-
tions of 1811-12 resulted everywhere in the defeat of
"submission men'^ and in the choice of new members
who were determined to resort to war against Great
Britain ; France had not been able to offer such concrete
cases of injury as her enemy, and there was no general
disposition to include her in the war. Clay, Calhoun,
Crawford, and other new men seized the lead in the two
houses of Congress, and forced Madison to agree to a
declaration of war as a condition of his re-election in
Election of 1812. 1812. War was begun by the declaration of
War with Eng- Juuc 18, 1812. The New England Federalists
'^"^- always called it " Mr. Madison's war," but the
President was about the most unwilling participant
in it.
176. The national democracy meant to attack Great
Britain in Canada, partly to gratify its western constitu-
ency, who had been harassed by Indian attacks, asserted
to have been instigated from Canada. Premonitions of
success were drawn from the battle of Tippe-
canoe, in which Harrison had defeated the
north-western league of Indians formed by Tecumseh
(1811). Between the solidly settled Atlantic States and
Theatre of the the Canadian frontier was a wide stretch of
^^^- unsettled or thinly settled country, which
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. l47
was itself a formidable obstacle to war. Ohio had been
admitted as a State in 1802, and Louisiana was admitted
in 1812 ; but their admission had been due to the desire
to grant them self-government rather than to their full
development in population and resources. Cincinnati
was a little settlement of 2500 inhabitants ; the fringe of
settled country ran not very far north of it ; and all be-
yond was a wilderness of which little was known to the
authorities. The case was much the same with western
New York; the army which was to cross the Niagara
river must journey almost all the way from Albany
through a country far more thinly peopled than the far
western territories are now. The difficulties of transport
gave opportunities for peculation ; and a barrel of flour
sometimes reached the frontier army with its cost mul-
tiplied seven or eight fold. When a navy was to be
built on the lakes, the ropes, anchors, guns, and all ma-
terial had to be carried overland for a distance about
equal to the length of England ; and even then sailors
had to be brought to man the navy, and the vessels were
built of green timber; one vessel was launched nine
weeks after her timber was cut. It would have been
far less costly, as events proved, to have entered at once
upon a naval war ; but the crusade against Canada had
been proclaimed all through Kentucky and the west, and
their people were determined to wipe out their old scores
before the conclusion of the war.
177. The war opened with disaster — Hull's surrender
of Detroit ; and disaster attended it for two years. Polit-
ical appointments to positions in the regular Disasters by
army were numerous, and such officers were '^"*^-
worse than useless. The men were not fitly trained or
supplied. The war department showed no great knowl*
148 THE UNITED STATES.
edge, and poverty put its little knowledge out of service.
Several futile attempts at invasion were followed by de-
feat or abortion, until the political officers were weeded
out at the end of the year 1813, and Brown, Scott, Eip-
ley, and others who had fought their way up were put in
command. Then for the first time the men were drilled
and brought into effective condition ; and two successful
Chippewa and battlcs in 1814 — Chippcwa and Lundy's Lane
Lundy's Lane. — thrcw somc glory on the end of the war.
So weak were the preparations even for defence that a
British expedition in 1814 met no effective resistance
when it landed and burned Washington. It
^\^urnr°" ^^^ defeated, however, in an attempt to take
Baltimore.
178. The American navy at the outbreak of the war
numbered half a dozen frigates and about the same
State of the Humbcr of Smaller vessels. This was but a
navy. puuy adversary for the thousand sail of the
British navy, which had captured or shut up in port all
the other navies of Europe. But the small number of
American vessels, with the superabundance of trained
officers, gave them one great advantage; the training
and discipline of the men, and the equipment of the
vessels, had been brought to the very highest point.
Captains who could command a vessel but for a short
time, yielding her then to another officer, who was to
take his sea service in rotation, were all ambitious to
make their mark during their term. ^' The art of
handling and fighting the old broadside sailing frigate ?
had been carried in the little American navy to a
point which unvarying success and a tendency to fleet-
combats had now made far less common among British
captains.
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 149
179. The first year of the war saw five ship-duels, in
all of which the American frigates either captured or
sunk their adversaries. Four others followed
in 1813j in two of which the British vessels
came off victorious. The attention of the British
Government had by that time been fully diverted to the
North- American coast; its blockading fleets made it
very difficult for the larger American vessels to get to
sea ; and there were but seven other ship-combats, in only
one of which the American vessel was taken. Most of the
work was done by three frigates, the ^' Constitution," the
" Essex," and the ^' United States." There was fighting
also on the Great Lakes between improvised fleets of small
vessels. Perry captured the British fleet on victories on the
Lake Erie (1813) and Macdonough the Brit- '-^'<^5-
ish fleet on Lake Champlain (1814). The former victory
led to the end of the war in the west. Harrison, the
American commander in that section, shipped his army
across the lake in Perry's fleet, and routed the British
and Canadian army at the Thames.
180. The home dislike to the war had increased stead-
ily with the evidence of incompetent management by
the administration. The Federalists, who had peeiing in New
always desired a navy, pointed to the naval England,
successes as the best proof of the folly with which
the war had been undertaken and managed. New Eng-
land Federalists complained that the Federal Govern-
ment utterly neglected the defence of their coast, and
'.hat southern influence was far too strong in national
.' :airs. They showed at every opportunity a disposition
to adopt the furthest stretch of State sovereignty, as
stated in the Kentucky resolutions ; and every such
development urged the national democracy unconsciously
150 THE UNITED STATES.
further on the road to nationality. When the New Eng-
Hartford con- l^nd States Sent delegates to meet at Hartford
vention. ^iXidi consider their grievances and the best
remedies — a step perfectly proper on the Democratic
theory of a " voluntary Union " — treason was suspected,
and a readiness to suppress it by force was plainly shown.
The recommendations of the convention came to nothing ;
but the attitude of the dominant party towards it is one
of the symptoms of the manner in which the trials of
actual war were steadily reconciling democracy and na-
tionality. The object which Hamilton had sought by
high tariffs and the development of national classes had
been attained by more natural and healthy means.
181. In April, 1814, the first abdication of Napoleon
took place, and Great Britain was able to give more
attention to her American antagonist. The main attack
was to be made on Louisiana, the weakest and most dis-
tant portion of the Union. A fleet and army were sent
thither, and, after much delay, landed below the city.
The nearest settled country was Tennessee ; and between
it and New Orleans was a wilderness four
hundred miles long. Andrew Jackson had
become the most prominent citizen of Tennessee, and he
was ordered to the defence of New Orleans. His popu-
larity and energy brought riflemen down the river and
put them into position. The British assault was marred
by hopeless blunders, and the gallantry of the men only
made their slaughter and repulse more complete (Janu-
ary 8, 1815). Peace had been made at Ghent
fifteen days before the battle was fought, but
the news of the battle and the peace reached Washington
almost together, the former going far to make the latter
tolerable.
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 151
182. Though the land war had gone almost uniformly
against the United States, and the American naval suc-
cesses had been just enough to irritate the Eng-
lish mind, and though the British negotiators
had nothing to dread and everything to demand, the treaty
was quite satisfactory to the United States. It is true
that it said not a word about the questions of impress-
ment, search, and neutral rights, the grounds of the war;
Great Britain did not abandon her position on any of
them. But everybody knew that circumstances had
changed. The new naval power whose frigates alone in
the past twenty years had shown their ability to fight
English frigates on equal terms was not likely to be
troubled in future with the question of impressment;
and in fact, while not renouncing the right, the British
Government no longer attempted to enforce it. The
navy, it must be confessed, was the force which had at
last given the United States a recognized and cordial
acceptance in the family of nations ; it had solved the
problem of the reconciliation of democracy and nation-
ality. From this time the dominant party shows an
increasing disposition to exalt and maintain the national
element of the American system.
183. The remainder of this period is one of the barren-
est in American history. The opposition of the Federal
party to the war completed the measure of
. "^ . , -^ Extinction
its unpopularity, and it had only a perfunctory of the Federal
existence for a few years longer. There was ^^'^^'
but one real party, and the political struggles within it
tended to take the shape of purely personal politics.
Scandal, intrigue, and personal criticism became the
most marked characteristics of American politics until
the dominant party broke at the end of the period, and
152 THE UNITED STATES.
real party conflict was renewed. But the seeds of the
final disruption are visible from the peace of 1814. The
old-fashioned Eepublicans looked with intense suspicion
on the new form of republicanism generated by the war,
a type which instinctively bent its energies toward the
further development of national power. Clay was the
natural leader of the new democracy ; but John Quincy
Adams and others of Federalist antecedents or leanings
took to the new doctrines kindly; and even Calhoun,
Crawford, and others of the southern interest, were at
first strongly inclined to support them. One of the first
effects was the revival of protection and of a national
bank.
184. The charter of the national bank (§ 146) had
expired in 1811, and the dominant party had refused to
Bank of the rcchartcr it. The attempt to carry on the
United states, ^qji by loaus rcsultcd in almost a bankruptcy
and in a complete inability to act efiiciently. As soon as
peace gave time for consideration, a second bank was
chartered for twenty years, with a capital of $35,000,000,
four-fifths of which might be in Government stock. It
was to have the custody of the Government revenues, but
the secretary of the treasury could divert the revenues to
other custodians, giving his reasons for such action to
Congress. This clause, meant to cover cases in which the
Bank of the United States had no branch at a place
where money was needed, was afterwards put to use for
a very different purpose (§ 204).
185. Protection was advocated again on national
grounds, but not quite on those which had moved Ham-
ilton (§ 146). The additional receipts were
now to be expended for fortifications and
other national defences, and for national roads and canals,
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 153
the latter to be considered solely as military measures,
with an incidental benefit to the people. Business dis-
tress among the people gave additional force to the
proposal. The war and blockade had been an active form
of protection, under which American manufactures had
sprung up in great abundance. As soon as peace was
made English manufacturers poured their products into
the United States, and drove their American rivals out
of business or reduced them to desperate straits. Their
cries to Congress for relief had a double effect. They
gave the spur to the nationalizing advocates of protection,
and, as most of the manufacturers were in New England
or New York, they developed in the citadel of Federalism
a class which looked for help to a Eepublican Congress,
and was therefore bound to oppose the Federal party.
This was the main force which brought New England
into the Republican fold before 1825. An
,, , o • -It o Manufactures.
increase m the number oi spindles irom
80,000 in 1811 to 500,000 in 1815, and in cotton con-
sumption from 500 bales in 1800 to 90,000 in 1815, the
rise of manufacturing towns, and the rapid development
of the mechanical tendencies of a people who had been
hitherto almost exclusively agricultural, were influences
which were to be reckoned with in the politics of a dem-
ocratic country.
186. The tariff of 1816 imposed a duty of about twenty-
five per cent, on imports of cotton and woollen goods,
and specific duties on iron imports. The ad
valorem duties carried most of the manufac-
turers through the financial crisis of 1818-19, but the
iron duties were less satisfactory. In English manufac-
ture the substitution of coke for charcoal in iron production
led to continual decrease in price. As the price went
154 THE UNITED STATES.
down the specific duties were continually increasing the
absolute amount of protection. Thus spared the necessity
for improvements in production, the American manufac-
turers felt English competition more keenly as the years
went by, and called for more protection.
187. Monroe succeeded Madison as President in 1817,
and, re-elected with hardly any opposition in 1820, he
served until 1825. So complete was the supremacy of the
Republican party that this is often called "the era of
good feeling." It came to an end when a successor to
" Era of good Mouroc was to bc elected ; the two sections
feeling." Qf ^]^q domiuaut party then had their first
opportunity for open struggle. During Monroe's two
terms of office the nationalizing party developed the
policy on which it proposed to manage national affairs.
This was largely the product of the continually swelling
western movement of population. The influence of the
steamboat was felt more and more every year, and the
want of a similar improvement in land transport was
correspondingly evident. The attention drawn to western
New York by the war had filled that part of the State
with a new population. The Southern Indians had been
completely overthrown by Jackson during the war of
1812, and forced to cede their lands ; all the territory
west of Georgia was thus opened up to settlement. The
admission of the new States of Indiana (1816),
Admission of ^
Indiana, Mis- Mississippi (1817), Illiuois (1818), Alabama
nois'^Aiaba- (1819), Maiuc (1820), and Missouri (1821)—
nna, Maine, all but Maiuc the product and evidence of
western growth — were the immediate results
of the development consequent upon the war. All the
territory east of the Mississippi, except the northern part
of the north-west territory, was now formed into self-
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 155
governing States ; the State system had already crossed
the Mississippi ; and all that was needed for further de-
velopment was the locomotive engine. The four millions
of 1790 had grown into thirteen millions in 1830 ; and
there was a steady increase of one-third in each decade.
188. The urgent demand of western settlers for some
road to a market led to a variety of schemes to facilitate
intercourse between the east and the west, — the most
successful being that completed in New York in 1825,
the Erie Canal. The Hudson river forms the
great natural breach in the barrier range
which runs parallel to the Atlantic coast. When the
traveller has passed up the Hudson through that range
he sees before him a vast champaign country extending
westward to the Great Lakes, and perfectly adapted by
nature for a canal. Such a canal, to turn western traffic
into the lake rivers and through the lakes, the canal, and
the Hudson to New York city, was begun by the State
through the influence of De Witt Clinton, was derisively
called " Clinton's big ditch " until its completion, and
laid the foundations for the great commercial prosperity
of New York State and city. Long before it was finished
the evident certainty of its success had seduced other
States into far less successful enterprises of the kind
and had established as a nationalizing policy the combi-
nation of high tariffs and expenditures for internal im-
provements which was long known as the "American
system." The tariffs of duties on imports The "American
were to be carried as high as revenue results system,"
would approve ; within this limit the duties were to be
defined for purposes of protection ; and the superabun-
dant revenues were to be expended for the improvement
of roads, rivers, and harbors, and for every enterprise
156 THE UNITED STATES.
which would tend to aid the people in their efforts to
subdue the continent. Protection was now to be for
national benefit, not for the benefit of classes. Western
farmers were to have manufacturing towns at their
doors, as markets for the surplus which had hitherto
been rotting on their farms ; competition among manu-
facturers was to keep down prices ; migration to all the
new advantages of the west was to be made easy at
national expense ; and Henry Clay's eloquence was to
commend the whole policy to the people. The old
democracy, particularly in the south, insisted that the
whole scheme really had its basis in benefits to classes,
that its communistic features were not such as the Con-
stitution meant to cover by its grant of power to Con-
gress to levy taxation for the general welfare, and that
any such legislation would be unconstitutional. The
Tariffs of 1824 dissatisfactiou in the south rose higher when
and 1828. ^\q tariffs wcrc increased in 1824 and 1828.
The proportion of customs revenue to dutiable imports
rose to 37 per cent, in 1825 and to 44 per cent, in 1829 ;
and the ratio to aggregate imports to 33 per cent, in 1825
and 37 per cent, in 1829. As yet, however, the southern
dissatisfaction showed itself only in resolutions of State
legislatures.
189. In the sudden development of the new nation
circumstances had conspired to give social forces an ab-
normally materialistic cast, and this had strongly influ-
enced the expression of the national life. Its literature
and its art had amounted to little, for the American
people were still engaged in the fiercest of warfare against
natural difficulties, which absorbed all their energies.
190. In international relations the action of the Gov-
ernment was strong, quiet, and self-respecting. Its first
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 157
weighty action took place in 1823. It had become pretty
evident that the Holy Alliance, in addition to its inter-
ventions in Europe to suppress popular risings, meant to
aid Spain in bringing her revolted South American colo-
nies to obedience. Great Britain had been drifting steadily
away from the Alliance, and Canning, the new secretary,
determined to call in the weight of the trans-Atlantic
power as a check upon it. A hint to the American
minister was followed by a few pregnant passages in
President Monroe's annual message in De- jhe Monroe
cember. Stating the friendly relations of the doctrine.
United States with the new South American republics,
he went on to say, " We could not view an interposition
for oppressing them (the South American states), or con-
trolling in any other manner their destiny by any Euro-
pean power, in any other light than as a manifestation of
an unfriendly disposition towards the United States." If
both the United States and Great Britain were to take
this ground the fate of a fleet sent by the Alliance
across the Atlantic was not in much doubt, and the
project was at once given up. The " Monroe doctrine,"
however, has remained the rule of foreign intercourse
for all American parties. Added to the already estab-
lished refusal of the United States to become entangled
in any European wars or alliances, it has separated the
two continents, to their common advantage.
191. It was supposed at the time that Spain might
transfer her colonial claims to some stronger power ; and
Mr. Monroe therefore went on to say that " the jhe colonial
American continents should no longer be sub- ^'^"^®'
jects for any new European colonial settlement." The
meaning of this was well understood at the time ; and, when
its condition failed, the statement lost its force. It has
158 THE UNITED STATES.
been supposed that it bound the United States to resist
any further establishment of European colonies in the
Americas. Such a role of universal arbiter has always
been repudiated by the United States, — though its sym-
pathies, more or less active, must always go with any
American republic which falls into collision with any
such colonizing scheme.
192. By a treaty with Eussia (1825) that power gave
up all claims on the Pacific coast south of the present
The north-west liHiits of Alaska. The northern boundary of
boundary, ^j^^ United Statcs had been settled by the
treaty of 1783 ; and, after the acquisition of Louisiana, a
convention with Great Britain settled the boundary on
the line of 49° N. lat. as far west as the Rocky Moun-
tains (1818). West of these mountains the so-called
Oregon country (§ 168), on whose limits the two pow-
ers could not agree, was to be held in common possession
for ten years. This common possession was prolonged
by another convention (1827) indefinitely, with the priv-
ilege to either power to terminate it on giving twelve
months' notice. This arrangement lasted until 1846
(§ 224).
193. Monroe's terms of ofiice came to an end in 1825.
He had originally been an extreme Democrat, who could
hardly speak of Washington with patience ; he had slowly
changed into a very moderate Eepublican, whose tenden-
cies were eagerly claimed by the few remaining Feder-
alists as identical with their own. The nationalizing
faction of the dominant party had scored almost all the
successes of the administration, and the divergence be-
tween it and the opposing faction was steadily becoming
more apparent. All the candidates for the presidency in
1824 — Andrew Jackson, a private citizen of Tennessee ;
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 159
William H. Crawford, Monroe's secretary of the treas-
ury j John Quincy Adams, his secretary of state ; and
Henry Clay, the speaker of the house of
representatives — claimed to be Eepublicans ^^^'°" °^ '^24.
alike ; but the personal nature of the struggle was shown
by the tendency of their supporters to call themselves
" Adams men " or " Jackson men," rather than by any real
party title. Calhoun was supported by all parties for
the vice-presidency, and was elected without difficulty.
The choice of a President was more doubtful.
194. None of the four candidates had anything like a
party organization behind him. Adams and Clay repre-
sented the nationalizing element, as Crawford
and Jackson did not ; but there the likeness ^^^ divergence.
among them stopped. The strongest forces behind
Adams were the new manufacturing and commercial in-
terests of the east ; behind Clay were the desires of the
west for internal improvements at public expense as a
set-off to the benefits which the seaboard States had
already received from the Government ; and the two ele-
ments were soon to be united into the National Republican
or Whig party. Crawford was the representative of the
old Democratic party, ,with all its southern influences
and leanings. Jackson was the personification of the
new democracy — not very cultured, perhaps, but honest,
and hating every shade of class control instinctively. As
he became better known the whole force of the new drift
of things turned in his direction ; "hurrah for Jackson"
undoubtedly often represented tendencies which the
speaker would have found it hard to express otherwise.
Crawford was taken out of the race, just after this elec-
tion, by physical failure, and Adams by the revival of
ancient quarrels with the Federalists of New England;
160 THE UNITED STATES.
and the future was to be with Clay or Avith Jackson. But
in 1824 the question of success among the four was not
an easy one to decide. The electors gave no one a ma-
jority ; and the house of representatives gave the presi-
dency to Adams (§§ 119, 120).
195. Adams's election in 1824 was due to the fact
that Clay's friends in the house — unable to vote for him,
as he was the lowest in the electoral vote, and only three
names were open to choice in the house — very naturally
gave their votes to Adams. As Adams appointed Clay
The Adams ad- *» the leading position in his cabinet, the
ministration, defeated party at once raised the cry of
" bargain and intrigue," one of the most effective in a
democracy, and it was kept up throughout Adams's four
years of office. Jackson had received the largest number
of electoral votes, though not a majority ; and the hazy
notion that he had been injured because of his devotion
to the people increased his popularity. Though dema-
gogues made use of it for selfish purposes, this feeling
was an honest one, and Adams had nothing to oppose to it.
He tried vigorously to uphold the " American system,"
and succeeded in passing the tariff of 1828 ; he tried to
maintain the influence of the United States on both the
American continents ; brn? he remained as unpopular as
his rival grew popular. In 1828 Adams was
easily displaced by Jackson. Calhoun was
re-elected Vice-President.
196. Jackson's inauguration in 1829 closes this period,
as it ends the time during which a disruption of the
Democracy and Uniou by the peaccable withdrawal of any
•nationality, g^g^^g ^^g q^q^ possiblc. The party which
had made State sovereignty its bulwark in 1798 was
now in control of the Government again j but Jackson's
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 161
proclamation in his first term, in which, he warned
South Carolina that "disunion by armed force is trea-
son/' and that blood must flow if the laws were re-
sisted, speaks a very different tone from the speculations
of Jefferson on possible future divisions of the United
States. And even the sudden attempt of South Carolina
to exercise independent action (§ 206), which would
have been looked upon as almost a right forty years
before, shows that some interest dependent upon State
sovereignty had taken alarm at the evident drift of
events, and was anxious to lodge a claim to the right
before it should slip from its fingers forever. Nullifica-
tion was but the first skirmish between the two hostile
forces of slavery and democracy.
197. When the vast territory of Louisiana was ac-
quired in 1803 the new owner found slavery already
established there by custom recognized by
French and Spanish law. Congress tacitly
ratified existing law by taking no action; slavery con-
tinued legal, and spread further through the territory;
and the State of Louisiana entered as a slave State in
1812. The next State to be carved out of the territory
was Missouri, admitted in 1821. A Territory, on apply-
ing for admission as a State, brings a constitution for
inspection by Congress ; and when it was found that the
new State of Missouri proposed to recognize and con-
tinue slavery, a vigorous opposition spread through the
north and west, and carried most of the senators and
representatives from those sections with it. In the
house of representatives these two sections had a greatly
superior number of members; but, as the number of
Northern and Southern States had been kept about
equal, the compact southern vote, with one or two
162 THE UNITED STATES.
northern allies, generally retained control of the senate.
Admitted by the senate and rejected by the house,
Missouri's application hung suspended for several years,
until it was successful by the admission of Maine, a
balancing Northern State, and by the following arrange-
The Missouri mcut, kuowu as thc Missourl compromise of
compromise. 1820 : Missourl was to enter as a slave
State; slavery was forever prohibited throughout the
rest of the Louisiana purchase north of lat. 36° 30', the
main southern boundary of Missouri; and, though
nothing was said of the territory south of the com-
promise line, it was understood that any State formed
out of it was to be a slave State, if it so wished (§ 249).
Arkansas entered under this provision in 1836.
198. The question of slavery was thus set at rest for
the present, though a few agitators were roused to more
Sectional diver- zcalous opposltloH to tlic csseucc of slavcry
gence. itsclf. lu thc ucxt dccadc these agitators
succeeded only in the conversion of a few recruits, but
these recruits were the ones who took up the work at
the opening of the next period and never gave it up
until slavery was ended. It is plain now, however, that
north and south had already drifted so far apart as to
form two sections, and that, as things stood, their drift
for the future could only be further apart, in spite of
the feeble tie furnished by the Missouri compromise. It
became evident, during the next forty years, that the
wants and desires of these two sections were so diver-
gent that it was impossible for one Government to make
satisfactory laws for both. The moving cause was not
removed in 1820 ; one of its effects was got out of the
way for the time, but others were soon to take its place.
199. The vast flood of human beings which had been pour-
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 163
ing westward for years had now pretty well occupied the
territory east of the Mississippi, while, on the
west side of that stream, it still showed a dis-
position to hold to the river valleys. The settled area
had increased from 240,000 square miles in 1790 to 633,-
000 square miles in 1830, with an average of 20.3 persons
to the square mile. There was still a great deal of In-
dian territory in the Southern States of Georgia, Alabama,
and Mississippi, and in Florida, for the southern Indians
were among the finest of their race ; they had become
semi-civilized, and were formidable antagonists to the en-
croaching white race. The States interested had begun
preparations for their forcible removal, in public de-
fiance of the attempts of the Federal Government to pro-
tect the Indians (1827) ; but the removal was not com-
pleted until 1835. In the north, Wisconsin and Michi-
gan, with the northern halves of Illinois and Indiana,
were still very thinly settled, but everything indicated
early increase of population. The first lake
steamboat, the " Walk-in-the- Water," had ap-
peared at Detroit in 1818, and the opening of the Erie
Canal added to the number of such vessels. Lake Erie
had seven in 1826 ; and in 1830, while the only important
lake town, Detroit, was hardly yet more than a frontier
fort, a daily line of steamers was running to it from
Buffalo, carrying the increasing stream of emigrants to
the western territory.
200. The land system of the United States had much
to do with the early development of the west. From
the first settlement, the universally recog-
nized rule had been that of absolute individual ^ ^" system.
property in land, with its corollary of unrestricted com-
petitive or " rack " rents : and this rule was accepted fully
164 THE UNITED STATES.
in the national land system, whose basis was reported by
Jefferson, as chairman of a committee of the Confedera-
tion Congress (1785). The public lands were to be di-
vided into hundreds of ten miles square, each containing
one hundred mile-square plots. The hundred was called
a " township/' and was afterwards reduced to six miles
square, of thirty-six mile-square plots of 640 acres each.
From time to time principal meridians and east and west
base lines have been run, and townships have been deter-
mined by their relations to these lines. The sections
(plots) have been subdivided, but the transfer describes
each parcel from the survey map, as in the case of " the
southwest quarter of section 20, township 30, north, range
1 east of the third principal meridian." The price fixed
in 1790 as a minimum was two dollars per acre ; it has
tended to decrease, and no effort has ever been made to
gain a revenue from it. When the nation acquired its
western territory it secured its title to the soil, and always
made it a fundamental condition of the admission of a
new State that it should not tax United States lands.
To compensate the new States for the freedom of unsold
public lands from taxation, one township in each thirty-
six was reserved to them for educational purposes ; and
the excellent public school systems of the Western States
have been founded on this provision. The cost of ob-
taining a quarter section (160 acres), under the still
later homestead system of granting lands to actual set-
tlers, has come to be only about twenty-six dollars ; the
interest on this, at six per cent., represents an annual
rent of one cent per acre — making this, says F. A. Walker,
as nearly as possible the "no-rent land" of the econo-
mists.
201. The bulk of the early westward migration was of
DEMOCRACY AND NATIONALITY. 165
home production ; the great immigration from Europe did
not begin until about 1847 (§ 236). The
west as well as the east thus had its institu-
tions fixed before being called upon to absorb an enor-
mous foreign element.
166 THE UNITED STATES.
VIII.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT AND SECTIONAL
DIVERGENCE.
1829-50.
202. The eight years after 1829 have been called " the
reign of Andrew Jackson " ; his popularity, his long
New political strugglc for the presidency, and his feeling of
methods, j^jg official owncrsliip of the subordinate offices
gave to his administration at least an appearance of
Csesarism. But it was strictly constitutional Csesarism ;
the restraints of written law were never violated, though
the methods adopted within the law were new to national
politics. Since about 1800 State politics in New York
and Pennsylvania had been noted for the systematic use
of the offices and for the merciless manner in which the
office-holder was compelled to work for the party which
kept him in place. The presence of New York and
Pennsylvania politicians in Jackson's cabinet taught him
to use the same system. Removals, except for cause, had
been almost unknown before ; but under Jackson men
were removed almost exclusively for the purpose of
installing some more serviceable party tool ; and a clean
sweep was made in the civil service. Other parties
adopted the system, and it has remained the rule at a
change of administration until comparatively recent years
(§ 323).
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 167
203. The system brought with it a semi-military reor-
ganization of parties. Hitherto nominations for the
more important offices had been made mainly
by legislative caucuses ; candidates for Presi- organization of
dent and Vice-President were nominated by p^^'^^-
caucuses of Congressmen^ and candidates for the higher
State offices by caucuses of the State legislatures. Late
in the preceding period " conventions " of delegates from
the members of the party in the State occur in New York
and Pennsylvania ; and in 1831-32 this became the rule
for presidential nominations. It rapidly developed into
systematic State, county, and city " conventions " ; and
the result was the appearance of that complete political
machinery, the American political party, with its local
organizations, and its delegates to county. State, and
national conventions. The Democratic machinery was
the first to appear, in Jackson's second term (1833-37).
Its workers were paid in offices, or hopes of office, so that
it was said to be built on the " cohesive power of public
plunder"; but its success was immediate and brilliant.
The opposing party, the Whig party, had no chance of
victory in 1836; and its complete overthrow drove its
leaders into the organization of a similar machinery of
their own, which scored its first success in 1840. Since
that time these strange bodies, unknown to the law, have
governed the country by turns; and their enormous
growth has steadily made the organization of a third
piece of such machinery more difficult or hopeless.
204. The Bank of the United States had hardly been
heard of in politics until the new Democratic organization
came into hostile contact with it. A semi- Bank of the
official demand upon it for a political appoint- ^"'^^^ s^^^^^-
ment was met by a refusal ; and the party managers
168 THE UNITED STATES.
called Jackson's attention to an institution which he
could not but dislike the more he considered it. His
first message spoke of it in unfriendly terms, and every
succeeding message brought a more open attack. The
old party of Adams and Clay had by this time taken
the name of Whigs, probably from the notion
ig pa y. ^-^^^ they were struggling against " the reign
of Andrew Jackson," and they adopted the cause of the
bank with eagerness. The bank charter did not expire
until 1836, but in 1832 Clay brought up a bill for a new
charter. It was passed and vetoed (§ 113) ; and the
Whigs went into the presidential election of that year
on the veto. They were beaten; Jackson was re-elected;
and the bank party could never again get a majority in
the house of representatives for the charter. The insist-
ence of the President on the point that the charter was a
" monopoly " bore weight with the people. But the Pres-
ident could not obtain a majority in the senate. He
determined to take a step which would give him an
initiative, and which his opponents could not induce both
houses to unite in overriding or punishing. Taking
Removal of the acl-vantage of the provision that the secre-
deposits. -(^g^py qI ]^\^q trcasury might order the public
funds to be deposited elsewhere than in the bank or its
branches (§ 184), he directed the secretary to deposit all
the public funds elsewhere. Thus deprived of its great
source of dividends, the bank fell into difficulties, became
a State bank after 1836, and then went into bankruptcy.
205. All the political conflicts of Jackson's terms of
office were close and bitter. Loose in his ideas before
1829, Jackson shows a steady tendency to adopt the
strictest construction of the powers of the Federal Gov-
ernment, except in such official perquisites as the offices.
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 169
He grew into strong opposition to all traces of the
"American system," and vetoed bills for in- ^
•^ ' ■ Opposition
ternal improvements unsparingly; and Ms to the " Amer-
feeling of dislike to all terms of protection is '°^" system.
as evident, though he took more care not to make it
too public. There are many reasons for believing that
his drift was the work of a strong school of leaders
— ^Van Bur en, Benton, Livingston, Taney, Woodbury,
Cass, Marcy, and others — who developed the policy of
the party, and controlled it until the great changes
of parties about 1850 took their power from them.
At all events, some persistent influence made the Dem-
ocratic party of 1830-50 the most consistent and suc-
cessful party which had thus far appeared in the United
States.
206. Calhoun and Jackson were of the same stock —
Scottish-Irish — much alike in appearance and character-
istics, the former representing the trained caihounand
and educated logic of the race, the latter its Jackson.
instincts and passions. Jackson was led to break off his
friendly relations with Calhoun in 1830, and he had been
led to do so more easily because of the appearance of the
doctrine of nullification, which was generally attributed,
correctly enough, to the authorship of Calhoun. Assert-
ing, as the Eepublican party of 1798 had done, the
sovereign powers of each State, Calhoun held that, as a
means of avoiding secession and violent struggle upon
every occasion of the passage of an Act of Congress
which should seem unconstitutional to any State, the
State might properly suspend or " nullify " the operation
of the law within its jurisdiction, in order
. ,.•.•,• • . . Nullification.
to protect its citizens against oppression.
Webster, of Massachusetts, and Hayne, of South Caro-
170 THE UNITED STATES.
Una, debated the question in the senate in 1830, and the
supporters of each claimed a virtual victory for their
leader. The passage of the Tariff Act of 1832, which
organized and systematized the protective system, forced
the Calhoun party into action. A State convention in
South Carolina declared the Tariff Act null and not law
or binding on the people of the State, and made ready to
enforce the declaration.
207. But the time was past when the power of a single
State could withdraw it from the Union. The Presi-
dent issued a proclamation, warning the people of South
Carolina against any attempt to carry out the ordinance
of nullification ; he ordered a naval force to take posses-
sion of Charleston harbor to collect the duties under the
Act ; he called upon Congress for additional executive
powers, and Congress passed what nullifiers called the
"bloody bill," putting the land naval forces at the disposal
of the President for the collection of duties against " un-
lawful combinations " ; and he is said to have announced,
privately and profanely, his intention of making Calhoun
the first victim of any open conflict. Affairs looked so
threatening that an unoflEicial meeting of " leading nulli-
fiers " agreed to suspend the operation of the ordinance
until Congress should adjourn; whence it derived the
right to suspend has never been stated.
208. The President had already asked Congress to
reduce the duties ; and many Democratic members of Con-
gress, who had yielded to the popular clamor for Protec-
tion, were very glad to use the " crisis " as an excuse for
now voting against it. A compromise Tariff
Act, scaling down all duties over twenty per
cent, by one-tenth of the surplus each year, so as to bring
duties to a uniform rate of twenty per cent, in 1843,
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 171
was introduced by Clay and became law. Calhoun and
his followers claimed this as all that the nullification
ordinance had aimed at ; and the ordinance was formally
repealed. But nullification had received its death-blow ;
even those southern leaders who maintained the right
of secession refused to recognize the right of a State to
remain in the Union while nullifying its laws ; and,
when protection was reintroduced by the tariff of 1842,
nullification was hardly thought of.
209. All the internal conditions of the United States
were completely altered by the introduction of railways.
For twenty years past the Americans had jhe locomotive
been pushing in every direction which offered engine.
a hope of the means of reconciling vast territory with
enormous population. Stephenson's invention of the
locomotive came just in time, and Jackson's two terms
of office marked the outburst of modern American life.
English engines were brought over in 1829, and served
as models for a year or two ; and then the lighter forms
of locomotives, better suited to American conditions,
were introduced. The miles of railroad were 23 in 1830,
1098 in 1835, nearly 2000 in 1840, and thereafter they
about doubled every five years until 1860.
210. A railway map of 1840 shows a fragmentary
system, designed mainly to fill the gaps left by the means
of communication in use in 1830. One or two
short lines run back into the country from ^' "^^^^ °
Savannah and Charleston ; another runs north along the
coast from Wilmington to Baltimore ; several lines con-
nect New York with Washington and other points ; and
short lines elsewhere mark the openings which needed
to be filled at once — a number in New England and the
middle States, three in Ohio and Michigan, and three in
172 THE UNITED STATES.
Louisiana. Year after year new inventions came in to
increase and aid this development. Tlie an-
thracite coal of the middle States had been
known since 1790 (§ 19), but no means had been de-
vised to put the refractory agent to work. It was now
successfully applied to railroads (1836), and
to the manufacture of iron (1837). Hitherto
wood had been the best fuel for iron making ; now the
States which relied on wood were driven out of com-
petition, and production was restricted to the States in
which nature had placed coal alongside of iron. Steam
Ocean naviga- uavlgatiou across the Atlantic was established
tion. in 1838. The telegraph came next, Morse's
The telegraph. ;[jj-^g "being crcctcd in 1844. The spread of the
railway system brought with it, as a natural develop-
ment, the rise of the American system of express com-
panies, whose first phases of individual enterprise
appeared in 1839. No similar period in American his-
tory is so extraordinary for material development as the
decade 1830-40. At its beginning the country was an
overgrown type of colonial life ; at its end American life
had been shifted to entirely new lines, which it has since
followed. Modern American history had burst in with
the explosiveness of an Arctic summer.
211. If the steamboat had aided western development,
the railway made it a freshet. Cities and States grew
Western settle- ^s if thc oxygcu of their surrouudiugs had
ment. bccu suddculy increased. The steamboat in-
fluenced the railway, and the railway gave the steam-
boat new powers. Vacant places in the States east of
the Mississippi were filling up; the long lines of emi-
grant wagons gave way to the new and better methods
of transport; and new grades of land were made ac-
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 173
cessible. Cliicago was but a frontier fort in 1832;
within a half-dozen years it was a flourishing town, with
eight steamers connecting it with Buffalo, and dawning
ideas of its future development of railway connections.
The maps change from decade to decade, as mapmakers
hasten to insert new cities which have sprung up. Two
new States, Arkansas and Michie^an, were ad- ....
^ " ^ Admission of
mitted (1836 and 1837). The poi3ulation of Arkansas and
Ohio leaps from 900,000 to 1,500,000, that of ^''^'^'"•
Michigan from 30,000 to 212,000, and that of the country
from 13,000,000 to 17,000,000, between 1830 and 1840.
212. With the change of material surroundings and
possibilities came a steady amelioration of social con-
ditions and a development of social ideals, social condi-
Such features of the past as imprisonment for ^'°"^-
debt and the cruel indifference of old methods of dealing
with crime began to disappear ; the time was past when
a State could use an abandoned copper-mine as its State
prison. The domestic use of gas and anthracite coal,
the introduction of expensive aqueducts for pure water,
and the changing life of the people forced changes in the
interior and exterior of American dwellings. Wood was
still the common building material ; imitations of Greek
architecture still retained their vogue ; but the interiors
were models of comfort in comparison with the houses
even of 1810. In the " new " regions this was not yet
the case, and here social restraints were still so few that
society seemed to be reduced almost to its primitive
elements. Western steamers reeked with gambling,
swindling, duelling, and every variety of vice. Public
law was almost suspended in some regions ; and organ-
ized associations of counterfeiters and horse-thieves
terrorized whole sections of country. But this state of
174 THE UNITED STATES.
affairs was altogether temporary, as well as limited in
its area ; the older and more densely settled States had
been well prepared for the change and had never lost
command of the social forces, and the process of settling
down went on, even in the newer States, with far more
rapidity than could reasonably have been expected.
Those who took part in the movements of population
in 1830^0 had been trained under the rigid forms of
the previous American life; and these soon reasserted
themselves. The rebound was over before 1847, and the
Western States were then as well prepared to receive
and digest the great immigration which followed as the
older States would have been in 1830.
213. A distinct American literature dates from this
period. Most of the publications in the United States
were still cheap reprints of foreign works ;
but native productions no longer followed
foreign models with servility. Between 1830 and 1840
Whittier, Longfellow, Holmes, Poe, Hawthorne, Emer-
son, Bancroft, and Prescott joined the advance-guard of
American writers — Bryant, Dana, Halleck, Drake, Irving,
and Cooper; and even those writers who had already
made their place in literature showed the influence of
new conditions by their growing tendency to look less
to foreign models and methods than before 1830. Popu-
lar education was improved. The new States had from
the first endeavored to secure the best possible system
of common schools. The attempt came naturally from
the political instincts of the class from which the mi-
gration came ; but the system which resulted was to be of
Common school incalculable service during the years to come.
system. Their absolute democracy and their universal
use of the English language have made the common
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 175
schools most successful macliines for converting the raw
material of immigration into American citizens. This
supreme benefit is the basis of the system and the reason
for its existence and development, but its incidental
benefit of educating the people has been beyond cal-
culation. It was an odd symptom of the
general change that American newspapers ^ p^p^'*-
took a new form during these ten years. The old
"blanket-sheet" newspaper, cumbrous to handle and
slow in all its ways, met its first rival in the type of
newspaper which appeared first in New York city, in
the Sun, the Herald, and the Tribune (1833, 1835, and
1841). Swift and energetic in gathering news, and
fearless, sometimes reckless, in stating it, they brought
into American life, with very much that is evil, a great
preponderance of good.
214. The chaos into which a part of American society
had been thrown had a marked effect on the financial
institutions of the country, which went to
pieces before it for a time. It had not been
meant to make the public lands of the United States a
source of revenue so much as a source of development.
The sales had touched their high-water mark during the
speculative year 1819, when receipts from them had
amounted to $3,274,000; in other years they seldom
went above $2,000,000. When the railroad set the
stream of migration moving faster than ever, and cities
began to grow like mushrooms, it was natual that specu-
lation in land should feel the effects. Sales
rose to $3,200,000 in 1831, to $4,000,000 in ^p^^^'^''°"-
1833, to $5,000,000 in 1834, to $15,000,000 in 1835,
and to $25,000,000 in 1836. In 1835 the President
announced to Congress that the public debt was extin-
176 THE UNITED STATES.
guished, and that some way of dealing with the surplus
should be found. Calhoun's proposal, that after the
year 1836 all revenue above $5,000,000 should be divided
among the States as a loan, was adopted, though only
one such loan was made. The States had already taken
a hand in the general speculation by beginning works of
public improvement. Foreign, particularly English,
capital was abundant ; and States which had been accus-
tomed to seek a dozen times over a tax of a hundred
thousand dollars now began to negotiate loans of millions
of dollars and to appropriate the proceeds to the digging
of canals and the construction of railroads. Their enter-
prises were badly conceived and badly managed, and
only added to the confusion when the crash came. If
the Federal Government and the States felt that they
were rich, the imaginations of individuals ran riot.
Every one wanted to buy; prices rose, and every one
was growing rich on paper. The assessed value of real
estate in New York city in 1832 was $104,000,000; in
1736 it had grown to $253,000,000. In Mobile the
assessed value rose from $1,000,000 to $27,000,000.
Fictitious values were the rule everywhere.
215. When Jackson (1833) ordered the Government
revenues to be deposited elsewhere than in the Bank of
the United States (§ 204), there was no
orpora ions. Q.Qygj,j^jj^gj^l^ agcut to rcccive them. The
secretary of the treasury selected banks at various points
in which the revenue should be deposited by the collect-
ing officers ; but these banks were organized under
charters from their States, as were all banks except that
of the United States. The theory of the dominant
party denied the constitutional power of Congress to
charter a bank, and the States had not yet learned how
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. Ill
to deal with such institutions. Their grants of bank
charters had been based on ignorance, intrigue, favorit-
ism, or corruption, and the banks were utterly unregu-
lated. The democratic feeling was that the privilege of
forming banking corporations should be open to all citi-
zens, and it soon became so. Moreover it was not until
after the crash that New York began the system of com-
pelling such deposits as would really secure circulation,
which was long afterward further developed into the pres-
ent national bank system. In most of the States banks
could be freely organized with or without tangible capi-
tal, and their notes could be sent to the West for the
purchase of Government lands, which needed to be held
but a month or two to gain a handsome profit. " Wild-
cat banks " sprang up all over the country, and the " pet
banks," as those chosen for the deposit of Government
revenues were called by their rivals, went into specula-
tion as eagerly as the banks which hardly pretended to
have capital.
216. The Democratic theory denied the power of Con-
gress to make anything but gold or silver legal tender.
There have been "paper-money heresies" in jhe" specie
the party but there were none such among circular."
the new school of Democratic leaders which came in in
1829 ; they were " hard-money men." In 1836 Jackson's
secretary of the treasury ordered land agents to take noth-
ing in payment for lands except gold or silver. In the
following spring full effects of the order became evident ;
they fell on the administration of Van Buren, Jackson's
successor. Van Buren had been Jackson's secretary of
state, the representative man of the new Democratic
school, and, in the opinion of the opposition, the evil
genius of the Jackson administration ; and it seemed to
178 THE UNITED STATES.
the Whigs poetic justice that he should bear the weight
of his predecessor's errors. The "specie circular''
turned the tide of paper back to the east, and, when it
was presented for payment most of the banks suspended
specie payment with hardly a struggle. There was no
longer a thought of buying ; every one wanted to sell ;
and prices ran down with a rapidity even more startling
than that with which they had risen. Failures, to an
extent and on a scale unprecedented in the United States,
made up the " panic of 1837." Many of the
States had left their bonds in the hands of
their agents, and, on the failure of the latter, found that
the bonds had been hypothecated or disposed of, so that
the States got no return from them except a debt which
was to them enormous. Saddled suddenly with such a
burden, and unable even to pay interest, many
of the States " repudiated " their obligations ;
and repudiation was made successful by the fact that a
State cannot be sued except by its own consent (§ 65).
Even the Federal Government felt the strain, for its rev-
enues were locked up in suspended banks. A little more
than a year after Congress had authorized the distribution
of its surplus revenues among the States, Van Buren was
forced to call it into special session to provide some relief
for the Government itself.
217. Van Buren held manfulty to the strictest con-
struction of the powers of the Federal Government. He
insisted that the panic would best right itself without
Government interference, and, after a four years' strug-
gle, he succeeded in making the " sub-treasury scheme "
Sub-treasury law (1840). It cut off all counectiou of the
scheme. Government with banks, putting collecting
and disbursing officers under bonds to hold money safely
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 179
and to transfer it under orders from the treasury, and re-
stricting payments to or by the United States to gold
and silver. Its passage had been proceeded by another
commercial crisis (1839), more limited in its field, but
more discouraging to the people. It is true that Jackson,
in dealing with the finances, had " simply smashed things,"
leaving his successor to repair damages ; but it is far from
certain that this was not the best way available at the time.
The wisest scheme of financial reform would have had
small chance of success with the land-jobbers in Congress j
and Van Buren's firmness found the way out of the chaos.
218. Van Buren's firmness was unpopular; and the
Whig party now adopted methods which were popular,
if somewhat demagogical. It nominated
Harrison in 1840; it contrasted his homely
frontier virtues with Van Buren's " ostentatious indiffer-
ence to the misfortunes of the people " and with his sup-
posed luxury of his life in the White House ; and, after
the first of the modern " campaigns " of mass meetings
and processions, Harrison was elected. He died soon
after his inauguration (1841), and the Vice-President,
Tyler, became President. Tyler was of the extreme
Calhoun school, which had shown some disposition to
grant to Van Buren a support which it had refused to
Jackson ; and the Whigs had nominated Tyler to retain
his faction with them. Now he was the nominal leader of
the party, while his politics were opposite to theirs, and
the real leader of the party. Clay, was ready to force a
quarrel upon him. The quarrel took place ; the Whig
majority in Congress was not large enough to pass any
measures over Tyler's veto ; and the first two years of his
administration were passed in barren conflict with his
party. The " sub-treasury " law was repealed (1841) j
180 THE UNITED STATES.
the tariff of 1842 introduced a modified protection ; and
there the Whigs were forced to stop. Their dissensions
made democratic success comparatively easy,
and Tyler had the support of a Democratic
house behind him during the last two years of his term.
219. The success of the Democratic machinery, and
the reflex of its temporary check in 1840, with the influ-
ences brought to bear on it by the returning Calhoun
faction, were such as to take the control of the party out
of the hands of the leaders who had formed it. They
had had high regard for political principle, even though
they were willing to use doubtful methods for its propa-
gation; these methods had now brought out new men,
who looked mainly to success, and to close connection
with the controlling political element of the south as
the easiest means of attaining success. When the
Democratic convention of 1844 met it was expected to
renominate Van Buren. A majority of the delegates
had been sent there for that purpose, but many of them
would have been glad to be prevented from doing so.
They allowed a resolution to be passed making a two-
thirds vote necessary for nomination; Van Buren was
unable to command so many votes ; and, when his name
was withdrawn, Polk was nominated. The Whigs nomi-
nated Clay.
220. Up to the beginning of the abolitionist move-
ment in the United States, the establishment of the
Abolitionist Liberator ( 1831) and of the American Anti-
movement. siavcry Soclcty (1833) "abolition" had
meant gradual abolition; it was a wish rather than a
purpose. Garrison called for immediate abolition. The
basis of the American system was in the reserved rights
of the States, and slavery rested on their will, whicli
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 181
was not likely to be clianged. But tlie cry was kept up.
The mission of the abolitionists was to force the people
to think of the question ; and, in spite of riots, assaults,
and persecution of every kind, they fulfilled it manfully.
It was inevitable that, as the northern people were
brought unwillingly to think of the question, they should
look with new eyes on many of its phases ; while in the
south many who might dislike slavery were disposed to
resist the interferences with State rights which the new
proposal involved. In truth, slavery was more and more
out of harmony with the new economic conditions which
were rapidly taking complete control of the north and
west, but had hardly been felt in the south. Thus the
two sections, north and south, were more and more dis-
posed to take opposite views of everything in which
slavery was involved, and it had a faculty of involving
itself in almost everything. The status of slavery in
the Territories had been settled in 1820 (§ 197) ; that of
slavery in the States had been settled by the Constitu-
tion ; but even in minor questions the intrusive element
had to be reckoned with. The abolitionists sent their
documents through the mails, and the south wished the
Federal Government to interfere and stop the practice.
The abolitionists persisted in petitioning Congress for
the passage of various measures which Congress re-
garded as utterly unconstitutional; and the disposition
of Congress to deny or regulate the right of petition in
such matters excited the indignation of northern men
who had no sympathy with abolition. But the first
occasion on which the views of the two sections came
into flat contrast was on the question of the annexation
of Texas.
221. The United States had had a vague claim to
182 THE UNITED STATES.
Texas until 1819, when the claim was surrendered to
Spain in part compensation for Florida. On
the revolt of Mexico, Texas became a part of
that republic. It was colonized by Americans, mainly
southerners and slave-holders, and seceded from Mexico
in 1835, defeating the Mexican armies and establishing
its independence. Southern politicians desired its an-
nexation to the United States for many reasons. Its
people were kindred to them ; its soil would widen the
area of slavery ; and its territory, it was hoped, could be
divided into several States, to reinforce the southern
column in the senate. People in the north were either
indifferent or hostile to the proposal ; Van Buren had
declared against it, and his action was the secret reasoo
for his defeat in the Democratic convention. On the
other hand, there were indications that the
regon. jq^j^|- occupatiou of the Oregon country (§ 192)
could not last much longer. American immigration into
it had begun, while the Hudson's Bay company, the Eng-
lish tenant of the soil, was the natural enemy of immi-
gration. To carry the sentiment of both sections, the
two points were coupled ; and the Democratic convention
declared for the reannexation of Texas and the reoccupa-
tion of Oregon.
222. One of the cardinal methods of the political
abolitionists was to nominate candidates of their own
against a doubtful friend, even though this
' ^ ^ '^^ ^' secured the election of an open enemy. Clay's
efforts to guard his condemnation of the Texas annexation
project were just enough to push the Liberty party, the
political abolitionists, into voting for candi-
dates of their own in New York ; on a close
vote their loss was enough to throw the electoral votes
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 183
of that State to Polk, and its votes decided the result.
Polk was elected (November, 1844) ; and Texas was an-
nexed to the United States in the following Admission of
spring. At the next meeting of Congress "''^^^^•
(1845) Texas was admitted as a State.
223. West of Texas the northern prolongation of Mex-
ico ran right athwart the westward movement of Ameri-
can population ; and, though the movement had not yet
reached the barrier, the Polk administration desired fur-
ther acquisitions from Mexico. The western boundary
of Texas was undefined ; a strip of territory claimed by
Texas was settled exclusively by Mexicans ; but the Polk
administration directed Taylor, the American commander
in Texas, to cross the Nueces river and seize the disputed
territory. Collisions with Mexican troops followed ; they
were beaten in the battles of Palo Alto and Eesaca de la
Palma, and were chased across the Eio Grande. Taylor
followed, took the city of Monterey, and established him-
self far within northern Mexico.
224. On the news of the first bloodshed. Congress
declared war against Mexico, over the opposition of the
Whigs. A land and naval force took posses- ^^^ ^.^^^
sion of California, and a land expedition occu- Mexico.
pied New Mexico, so that the authority of Conquest of
Mexico over all the soil north of her present
boundaries was abruptly terminated (1846). At the
opening of 1847, Taylor fought the last battle in northern
Mexico (Buena Vista), defeating the Mexi- BuenaVista.
cans, and Scott, with a new army, landed at scott's cam-
Vera Cruz for a march upon the city of Mex- p^'^"-
ico. Scott's march was marked by one sue- ^®^^®-
cessful battle after another, usually against heavy odds \
and in September he took the capital city and held it
184 THE UNITED STATES.
until peace was made (1848) by the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo. Among tlie terms of peace was the cession of
the present State of California and the Territories of
Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico, the consideration being
a payment of ^15,000,000 by the United States and
the assumption of some $3,000,000 of debts due by Mex-
ico to American citizens. With a subsequent rectifica-
tion of frontier (1853), this cession added some 500,000
square miles to the area of the United States ; Texas
itself made up some 375,000 square miles more. The
settlement of the north-west boundary between Oregon
and British Columbia (§ 221), giving its own share to
each country (1846), with the Texas and Mexican ces-
sions, gave the United States the complete territorial
form retained until the annexation of Alaska in 1867.
225. In the new territory slavery had been forbidden
under Mexican law ; and its annexation brought up the
Slavery in the qucstiou of its status uudcr American law.
new Territory, jje who rcmcmbers the historical fact that
slavery had never been more than a custom, ultimately
recognized and protected by State law, will not have
much difficulty in deciding about the propriety of forcing
such a custom by law upon any part of a territory. But,
if slavery was to be excluded from the new territory, the
States which should ultimately be formed out of it would
enter as free States, inclined to take an anti-slavery view
of doubtful questions ; and the influence of the south in
the senate would be decreased. For the first time the
south appears as a distinct imperium in imperio in the
territorial difficulties which began in 1848.
226. The first appearance of these difficulties brought
out in the Democratic party a solution which was so
closely in line with the prejudices of the party, and
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 185
apparently so likely to meet all the wishes of the south,
that it bade fair to carry the party through the crisis
without the loss of its southern vote. This .. squatter
was "squatter sovereignty," the notion that sovereignty."
it would be best for Congress to leave the people of each
Territory to settle the question of the existence of slavery
for themselves. The broader and democratic ground for
the party would have been that which it at first seemed
likely to take, — the " Wilmot proviso," a condition pro-
posed to be added to the Act authorizing ac-
quisitions of territory, providing that slavery
should be forbidden in all territory to be acquired under
the Act. In the end apparent expediency carried the
dominant party off to "squatter sovereignty," and the
Democratic adherents of the Wilmot proviso, with the
Liberty party and the anti-slavery Whigs, united in 1848
under the name of the Free- Soil party. The
Whigs had no solution to offer ; their entire
programme, from this time to their downfall as a party,
consisted in a persistent effort to evade or ignore all
difficulties connected with slavery.
227. Taylor, after the battle of Buena Vista, resigned
and came home, considering himself ill-used by the ad-
ministration. He refused to commit himself to any
party ; and the Whigs were forced to accept him as their
candidate in 1848. The Democrats nominated
Cass ; and the Eree-Soil party or " Free-Soil-
ers," nominated Van Buren. By the vote of the last-
named party the Democratic candidate lost New York
and the election, and Taylor was elected President. Tak-
ing office in 1849, he had on his shoulders the whole burden
of the territorial difficulties aggravated by the discovery
of gold in California and the sudden rise of popula-
186 THE UNITED STATES.
tion there. Congress was so split into factions that it
could for a long time agree upon nothing ; thieves and
outlaws were too strong for the semi-military government
of California ; and the people of that Territory, with the
approval of the President, proceeded to form a constitu-
tion and apply for admission as a State. They had so
framed their constitution as to forbid slavery ; and this
was really the application of the Wilmot proviso to the
richest part of the new Territory, and the south felt that
it had been robbed of the cream of what it alone had
fought cheerfully to obtain.
228. The admission of California was not secured until
September, 1850, just after Taylor's sudden death, and
Admission of thcu ouly by the addition of a bonus to Texas,
California. ^]^g divlslou of the rcst of the Mexican cession
into the Territories of Utah and New Mexico without
mention of slavery, and the passage of a Fugitive Slave
Law. The slave trade, but not slavery, was forbidden in
the District of Columbia. The whole was generally
known as the compromise of 1850. Two of its features
Compromise of ^ecd uoticc. As lias bccu said, slavery was
'^^°- not mentioned in the Act ; and the status of
slavery in the Territories was thus left uncertain. Con-
gress can veto any legislation of a territorial legislature,
but, in fact, the two houses of Congress were hardly ever
able to unite on anything after 1850, and both these Ter-
ritories did establish slavery before 1860, without a Con-
gressional veto. The advantage here was with the south.
Fugitive Slave The othcr point, the Fugitive Slave Law, was
'-^^- a special demand of the south. The Constitu-
tion contained clauses directing that agitive criminals
and slaves should be delivered up, on requisition, by the
State to which they had fled (§ 124). In the case of
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 187
criminals tlie delivery was directed to be made by the
executive of tlie State to wMcli they had fled ; in the
case of slaves no delivering authority was specified, and
an Act of Congress in 1793 had imposed the duty on
Federal judges or on local State magistrates. Some of
the States had passed " personal liberty laws," forbidding
or limiting the action of their magistrates in Personal liberty
such cases ; and the Act of 1850 transferred '^^^•
the decision of such cases to United States commission-
ers, with the assistance of United States marshals. It
imposed penalties on rescues, and denied a jury trial.
All the ill effects of the law were not felt until a year or
two of its operation had passed (§ 244).
229. The question of slavery had taken up so much
time in Congress that its other legislation was compara-
tively limited. The rates of postage were reduced to five
and ten cents for distances less and greater than 300
miles (1845) ; and the naval school at Annapolis was
established the same year. The military school at
West Point had been established in 1794. When the
Democratic party had obtained complete control of the
government, it re-established the " sub-treasury," or inde-
pendent treasury (1846), which is still the
basis of the treasury system. In the same
year, after an exhaustive report by Robert J. Walker,
Polk's secretary of the treasury, the tariff of 1846 was
passed ; it reduced duties, and cut out all forms of pro-
tection. With the exception of a slight additional re-
duction of duties in 1857, this remained in force until
1861.
230. Eive States were admitted during the last ten
years of this period, — Florida (1845), Texas (1845),
Iowa (1846), Wisconsin (1848), and California (1850).
188 THE UNITED STATES.
The early entrance of Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida had
been due largely to Indian wars, — the Black Hawk war
in Iowa and Wisconsin (1832), and the Seminole war
in Florida (1835-37), after each of which
Admission .
of Florida, Iowa, the defeated Indians were compelled to cede
and Wisconsin. ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^ pj,.^^ ^^ ^^^^^^ rj^j^^ extinc-
tion of Indian titles in northern Michigan brought
about the discovery of the great copper fields of that
region, whose existence had been suspected long before
it could be proved. Elsewhere settlement followed the
lines already marked out, except in the new possessions
on the Pacific coast, whose full possibilities were not yet
Railways and kuowu. Eailroads in the Eastern States were
telegraphs, beginning to show something of a connected
system; in the south they had hardly changed since
1840 ; in the west they had only been prolonged on their
original lines. The telegraph, which was to make man
master of even the longest and most complicated systems,
was brought into use in 1844 ; but it is not until the
census of 1860 that its effects are seen in the fully con-
nected network of railroads which then covers the whole
north and west (§ 273).
231. The sudden development of wealth in the country
gave an impetus to the spirit of invention. Goodyear's
method of vulcanizing rubber (1839) had come
into use. M'Cormick had made an invention
whose results have been hardly less than that of the
locomotive in their importance to the United States.
He had patented a reaping-machine in 1834, and this,
further improved and supplemented by other inventions,
had brought into play the whole system of agricultural
machinery whose existence was scarcely known elsewhere
until the London " World's Fair " of 1851 brought it into
INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT. 189
notice. It was agricultural machinery that made western
farms profitable and enabled the railroads to fill the west
so rapidly (§ 278). A successful sewing-machine came
in 1846 ; the power-loom and the surgical use of anses-
thetics in the same year ; and the rotary press for print--
ing in 1847.
232. All the conditions of life were changing so ra}>
idly that it was natural that the minds of men should
change with them or become unsettled. This was the
era of new sects, of communities, of fantastic proposals
of every kind, of transcendentalism in literature, religion,
and politics. Not the most fantastic or benevolent, but
certainly the most successful, of these was the sect of
Mormons or Latter-day Saints. They settled
o T-r T • -ir>jrT IT The Mormons.
in the new Territory of Utah m 1847, calling
their capital Salt Lake City, and spreading thence through
the neighboring Territories. There they have become a
menace to the American system ; their numbers are so
great that it is against American instincts to deprive
them of self-government and keep them under a Con-
gressional despotism ; while their polygamy and submis-
sion to their hierarchy make it impossible to erect them
into a State which shall have complete control of mar-
riage and divorce.
233. The material development of the United States
since 1830 had been extraordinary, but every year made
it more evident that the south was not shar-
. 1 p ij The south.
mg m it. It IS plain now that the lauit was
in the labor system of the south : her only laborers
were slaves, and a slave who was fit for anything better
than field labor was prima facie a dangerous man. The
process of divergence had as yet gone only far enough to
awaken intelligent men in the south to the fact of its
190 THE UNITED STATES.
existence, and to stir tliem to efforts as hopeless as they
were earnest, to find some artificial stinmlns for southern
industries. In the next ten years the process was to
show its effects on the national field.
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 191
IX.
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION.
1850-61.
234. The abolitionists had never ceased to din the
iniquity of slavery into the ears of the American people.
Calhoun, Webster, and Clay, with nearly all slavery and the
the other political leaders of 1850, had united sections.
in deploring the wickedness of these fanatics, who were
persistently stirring up a question which was steadily
widening the distance between the sections. They mis-
took the symptom for the disease. Slavery itself had
put the south out of harmony with its surroundings, and
still more out of harmony with the inevitable lines of
the country's development. Even in 1850, though they
hardly yet knew it, the two sections had drifted so far
apart that they were ^practically two different countries.
235. The case of the south was one of arrested devel-
opment. The south remained very much as in 1790;
while other parts of the country had devel- jhe "slave
oped, it had stood still. The remnants of power."
colonial feeling, of class influence, which advancing
democracy had wiped out elsewhere, retained all their
force here, aggravated by the effects of an essentially
arictocratic system of employment. The ruling class had
to maintain a military control over the laboring class,
and a class influence over the poorer whites. It had
192 THE UNITED STATES.
even secured in the Constitution provision for its political
power in the representation given to three-fifths of the
slaves. The twenty additional members of the house of
representatives were not simply a gain to the south;
they were still more a gain to the "black districts/'
where whites were few, and the slave-holder controlled
the district. Slave-owners and slave-holders together,
there were but 350,000 of them ; but they had common
interests, the intelligence to see them, and the courage to
contend for them. The first step of a rising man was to
buy slaves ; and this was enough to enroll him in the
dominant class. From it were drawn the representatives
and senators in Congress, the governors, and all the
holders of offices over which the "slave power," as it
came to be called, had control. Not only was the south
inert; its ruling class, its ablest and best men, were
united in defence of tendencies which were alien and
hostile to those of the rest of the country.
236. Immigration into the United States was not an
important factor in its development until about 1847.
The immigrants, so late as 1820, numbered
but 8000 per annum; their number did not
touch 100,000 until 1842, and then it fell for a year or
two almost to half that number. In 1847 it rose again to
235,000, in 1849 to 300,000, and in 1850 to 428,000 ; all
told, more than two and a quarter million persons from
abroad settled in the United States between 1847 and
1854. Taking the lowest estimates, —eighty dollars each
for the actual amount of money brought in by immi-
grants, and eight hundred dollars each for their indus-
trial value to the country, — the wealth-increasing influ-
ence of such a stream of immigration may be calculated.
Its political effects were even greater, and were all in
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 193
the same direction. Leaving out the dregs of the immi-
gration, which settled down in the seaboard cities, its
best part was a powerful nationalizing force. It had not
come to any particular State, but to the United States ;
it had none of the traditional prejudices in favor of a
State, but a strong feeling for the whole country ; and
the new feelings which it brought in must have had their
weight not only on the gross mass of the people, but on
the views of former leaders. And all the influences of
this enormous immigration were confined to the north
and west, whose divergence from the south thus received
a new impetus. The immigration avoided slave soil
as if by instinct. So late as 1880 the census reports
that the Southern States, except Florida, Louisiana, and
Texas, are " practically without any foreign element " ;
but it was only in 1850-60 that this differentiating
circumstance began to show itself plainly. And, as
the sections began to differ further in aims and policy,
the north began to gain heavily in ability to ensure its
success.
237. Texas was the last slave State ever admitted;
and, as it refused to be divided, the south had no further
increase of numbers in the senate. Until jhe sections in
1850 the admission of a free State had been Congress.
so promptly balanced by the admission of a slave State
that the senators of the two sections had remained about
equal in number ; in 1860 the free States had 36 sena-
tors, and the slave States only 30. As the representation
in the house had changed from 35 free State and 30
slave State members in 1790 to 147 free State and 90
slave State in 1860, and as the electors are the sum of
the numbers of senators and representatives, it is evident
that political power had passed away from the south in
194 THE UNITED STATES.
1850. If at any time the free States should unite they
could control the house of representatives and the senate,
elect the President and Vice-President, dictate the ap-
pointment of judges and other Federal officers, and make
the laws what they pleased. If pressed to it, they could
even control the interpretation of the laws by the Su-
preme Court. No Federal judge could be removed except
by impeachment (§ 121), but an Act of Congress could
at any time increase the number of judges to any extent,
and the appointment of the additional judges could reverse
the opinion of the court. All the interests of the south
depended on the one question whether the free States
would unite or not.
238. In circumstances so critical a cautious quiescence
and avoidance of public attention was the only safe course
Tendencies to foi' the ^^slavc powcr," but that course had
disunion, become impossible. The numbers interested
had become too large to be subject to complete discipline ;
all could not be held in cautious reserve ; and, when an
advanced proposal came from any quarter of the slave-
holding lines, the whole army was shortly forced up to
the advanced position. Every movement of the mass
was necessarily aggressive; and aggression meant final
collision. If collision came, it must be on some question
of the rights of the States ; and on such a question the
whole south would move as one man. Everything thus
tended to disunion.
239. The Protestant churches of the United States had
reflected in their organization the spirit of the political
Sectarian divis- iustitutious uudcr wlilch they lived. Acting
''°"- as purely voluntary associations, they had
been organized into governments by delegates, much like
the "conventions" which had been evolved in the politi-
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 195
cal parties (§ 203). The omnipresent slavery question
intruded into these bodies, and split them. The Baptist
Church was thus divided into a northern and a southern
branch in 1845, and the equally powerful Methodist
Church met the same fate the following year. Two of
the four great Protestant bodies were thus no longer
national ; it was only by the most careful management
that the integrity of the Presbyterian Church was main-
tained until 1861, when it also yielded; and only the
Episcopal and Eoman Catholic Churches retained their
national character. If the process of disruption did not
extend to other sects, it was because they were already
mainly northern or mainly southern.
240. The political parties showed the same tendency.
Each began to shrivel up in one section or the other. The
notion of "squatter sovereignty" attractive at
first to the western democracy, and not repu-
diated by the south, enabled the Democratic party to i)ass
the crisis of 1850 without losing much of its northern
vote, while southern Whigs began to drift in, making the
party continually more pro-slavery. This could not con-
tinue long without beginning to decrease its northern
vote, but this effect did not become plainly visible until
after 1852. The efforts of the Whig party to ignore the
great question alienated its anti-slavery members in the
north, while they did not satisfy its southern members.
The Whig losses were not at first heavy, but, as the
electoral vote of each State is determined by the barest
plurality of the popular vote, they were enough to defeat
the party almost everywhere in the presidential
election of 1852. The Whigs nominated Scott
and the Democrats Pierce; and Pierce carried all but
four of the thirty-one States, and was elected. This
196 THE UNITED STATES.
revelation of hopeless weakness was the downfall of the
Whig yjarty ; it maintained its organization for four years
longer, but the life had gone out of it. The future was
with the Free-Soil party, though it had polled but few
votes in 1852.
241. During the administration of Taylor (and Vice-
President Fillmore, who succeeded him) Clay, Webster,
Changes in Calhouu, Polk, and Taylor were removed by
leadership, death, and there was a steady drift of other
political leaders out of public life. New men were push-
ing in everywhere, and in both sections they showed the
prevailing tendency to disunion. The best of them were
unprecedentedly radical. Sumner, Seward, and Chase
came into the senate, bringing the first accession of
recognized force and ability to the anti-slavery feeling
in that body. The new southern men, such as Davis,
and the Democratic recruits from the southern Whig
party, such as Stephens, were ready to take the ground
on which Calhoun had always insisted, — that Congress
was bound not merely to the negative duty of not attack-
ing slavery in the Territories, but to the positive duty of
protecting it. This, if it should become the general
southern position, was certain to destroy the notion of
squatter sovereignty (§ 226), and thus to split the Demo-
cratic party, which was almost the last national ligament
that now held the two fragments of the Union together.
242. The social disintegration was as rapid. Northern
men travelling in the south were naturally looked upon
Social diver- with incrcasiug suspicion, and were made to
gence. fgg]^ ^j^^^ ^j^gy ^^rc ou a soll alien in sympa-
thies. Some of the worst phases of democracy were
called into play in the south ; and, in some sections, law
openly yielded supremacy to popular passion in the cases
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 197
of suspected abolitionists. Southern conventions, on all
sorts of subjects, became common ; and in these meetings,
permeated by a dawning sense of southern nationality,
hardly any proposition looking to southern independen-ce
of the north was met with disfavor. In State elections a
distinctly disunion element appeared ; and, though it was
defeated, the majority did not deny the right of secession,
only its expediency.
243. Calhoun, in his last and greatest speech, called
attention to the manner in which one tie after another
was snapping. But he ignored the real peril Progress of d is-
of the situation — its dangerous facts: that ""'°"-
the south was steadily growing weaker in comparison
with the north, and more unable to secure a wider area
for the slave system ; that it was therefore being steadily
forced into demanding active Congressional protection for
slavery in the Territories; that the north would never
submit to this ; and that the south must submit to the
will of the majority or bring about a collision by attempt-
ing to secede.
244. Anti-slavery feeling in the north was stimulated
by the manner in which the Fugitive Slave Law (§ 228)
was enforced immediately after 1850. The Fugitive
chase after fugitive slaves was prosecuted in ^'^^^ '-^^•
many cases with circumstances of revolting brutality,
and features of the slave system which had been tacitly
looked upon as fictitious were brought home to the heart
of the free States. The added feeling showed Kansas-
its force when the Kansas-Nebraska Act was ^^^'^^^^ '^<=^-
passed by Congress (1854). It organized the two new
Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. Both of them were
forever free soil by the terms of the Missouri compro-
mise (§ 197). But the success of the notion of squatter
198 THE UNITED STATES.
sovereignty in liolcling the Democratic party together
while destroying the Whig party had intoxicated Douglas
and other northern Democrats ; and they now applied the
doctrine to these Territories. They did not desire "to
vote slavery up or down," but left the decision to the
people of the two Territories.
245. This was the grossest political blunder in American
history. The status of slavery had been settled, by the
Constitution or by the compromises of 1820 or 1850, on
every square foot of American soil ; right or wrong, the
settlement was made. The Kansas-Nebraska Act took a
great mass of territory out of the settlement and flung it
into the arena as a prize for which the sections were to
struggle ; and the struggle always tended to force, as the
only arbiter. The first result of the Act was to throw
The "American parties iuto chaos. Au American or "Know-
party." Nothing " party, a secret oath-bound organiza-
tion, pledged to oppose the influence or power of foreign-
born citizens, had been formed to take the place of the
defunct Whig party. It had been quite successful in
State elections for a time, and was now beginning to have
larger aspirations. It, like the Whig party, intended to
ignore slavery, but, after a few years of life, the questions
complicated with slavery entered its organization and
divided it also. Even in 1854 many of its leaders in the
north were forced to take position against the Kansas-
Nebraska Act, while hosts of others joined in the oppo-
sition without any party organization. No American
party ever rose so swiftly as this latter ; with no other
The Republican P^rty uamc tliau the awkward title of " Anti-
p^^y' Nebraska men," it carried the Congressional
elections of 1854 at the north, forced many of the former
Know-Nothing leaders into union with it, and controlled
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 199
the house of representatives of the Congress which met in
1855. The Democratic party, which had been practically
the only party since 1852, had now to face the latest and
strongest of its broad-constmctionist opponents, one which
with the nationalizing features of the Federal and Whig
parties combined democratic feelings and methods, and,
above all, had a democratic purpose at bottom. It
acknowledged, at first, no purpose aimed at slavery, only
an intention to exclude slavery from the Territories ; but,
under such principles, it was the only party which was
potentially an anti-slavery party, the only party to which
the enslaved laborer of the south could look with the
faintest hope of aid in reaching the status of a man. The
new party had grasped the function which belonged of
right to its great opponent, and it seized with it its oppo-
nent's original title. The name Democrat had quite taken
the place of that first used — Republican (§ 150), but the
latter had never passed out of popular remembrance and
liking at the north. The new party took quick and skil-
ful advantage of this by assuming the old name, and early
in 1856 the two great parties of the next thirty years —
the Democratic and Eepublican parties — were drawn up
against one another.
246. The foreign relations of the United States dur-
ing Pierce's term of office were overshadowed by the
domestic difficulties, but were of importance.
In the Koszta case (1853) national protec-
tion had been afforded on foreign soil to a person who
had only taken the preliminary steps to naturalization.
Japan had been opened to American inter-
course and commerce (1854). But the ques- ^^^^'
tion of slavery was more and more thrusting itself
into foreign relations. A great southern republic, to
200 THE UNITED STATES.
be founded at first by tlie slave States, but to take in
gradually the whole territory around the Gulf of Mexico
and include the West Indies, was soon to be a pretty
general ambition among slave-holders, and its first
phases appeared during Pierce's administration. Efforts
were begun to obtain Cuba from Spain ; and the three
leading American ministers abroad, meeting at Ostend,
Ostend mani- imitcd in declaring the possession of Cuba to
festo. ]3g essential to the well-being of the United
Filibustering, g^^^^^g (1854). <^ Filibustering '' expeditions
against Cuba or the smaller South American states, in-
tended so to revolutionize them as to lay a basis for an
application to be annexed to the United States, became
common, and taxed the energies of the Federal Govern-
ment for their prevention. All these, however, yielded
in interest and importance to the affairs in Kansas.
247. Nebraska was then supposed to be a desert, and
attention was directed almost exclusively to Kansas.
No sooner had its organization left the matter
of slavery to be decided by its " people " than
the anti-slavery people of the north and west felt it to
be their duty to see that the " people " of the Territory
should be anti-slavery in sympathy. Emigrant associa-
tions were formed, and these shipped men and families
to Kansas, arming them for their protection in the new
country. Southern newspapers called for similar meas-
ures in the south, but the call was less effective. South-
ern men without slaves, settling a new State, were un-
comfortably apt to prohibit slavery, as in California.
Only slave-holders were trusty pro-slavery men ; and
such were not likely to take slaves to Kansas, and risk
their ownership on the result of the struggle. But for
the people of Missouri, Kansas would have been free
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 201
soil at once. Lying across the direct road to Kansas,
the Missouri settlers blockaded the way of free-state
settlers, crossed into Kansas, and voted profusely at the
first Territorial election. Their votes chose a Terri-
torial legislature which gave a complete code of slave
laws to the Territory. Passing to the north of Missouri
the " free-state settlers " entered Kansas to find that
their opponents had secured the first position. This
brought out the fundamental difference between a Terri-
tory— under the absolute control of Congress and only
privileged in certain branches of legislation — and a
State with complete jurisdiction over its own affairs.
Finding themselves cut off from control of the former,
the free-state settlers determined to attempt to substi-
tute the latter. They organized a State Free-state gov-
government (1855), and applied for admis- e^nment.
sion by Congress. Such irregular erections of States
had been known before; and, though they were con-
fessedly not binding until confirmed by Congress, the
Democratic party had always been tender with them,
and prone to seek a compromise with them. A symptom
of the process which had been making the Democratic
party pro-slavery was seen in the attitude which the
Democratic administration now took towards the
inchoate State of Kansas. Never thinking of compro-
mise, it pounced on the new organization, scattered it,
arrested its leaders, and expressed a hesitating desire
to try them for treason (1856). Nevertheless, the free-
state settlers gave no further obedience to the Territo-
rial Govermnent, as the pro-slavery settlers refused to
recognize the pseudo-state G-overnment, and the struggle
passed into a real civil war, the two powers mustering
considerable armies, fighting battles, capturing towns,
202 THE UNITED STATES.
and paroling prisoners. The struggle was really over in
1857, and the south was beaten. It could not compete
with the resources and enthusiasm of the other section ;
its settlers were not unanimous, as their opponents were ;
and the anti-slavery settlers were in a great majority.
There were, however, all sorts of obstacles yet to be
overcome before the new State of Kansas was recognized
by Congress, after the withdrawal of the senators of the
seceding States (1861).
248. In the heat of the Kansas struggle came the
presidential election of 1856. The Democrats nominated
Buchanan, declaring, as usual, for the strictest
■ limitation of the powers of the Federal Gov-
ernment on a number of points specified, and reafB.rming
the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act — the settle-
ment of slavery by the people of the Territory. The
remnant of the Whig party, including the Know-Nothings
of the north and those southern men who wished no
further discussion of slavery, nominated the President
who had gone out of office in 1853, Fillmore. The Ke-
publican party nominated Fremont ; the bulk of its
manifesto was taken up with protests against attempts
to introduce slavery into the Territories ; but it showed
its broad-construction tendencies by declaring for appro-
priations of public moneys for internal improvements.
The Democrats were successful in electing Buchanan;
but the position of the party was quite different from the
triumph with which it had come out of the election of
1852. It was no longer master of twenty-seven of the
thirty-one States ; all New England and New York,
all the north-west, but Indiana and Illinois, all the free
States but five, had gone against it ; its candidate no
longer had a majority of the popular vote, but was chosen
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 203
by a majority of tlie electoral votes ; and it had before it
a party with nearly as many popular votes as its own,
the control of most of the strongest section of the Union,
and an enthusiasm which was more dangerous still. Eor
the first time in the history of the country a distinctly
anti-slavery candidate had obtained an electoral vote, and
had even come near obtaining the presidency. Fillmore
had carried but one State, Maryland; Buchanan had
carried the rest of the south, with a few States in the
north, and Eremont the rest of the north and none of the
south. If things had gone so far that the two sections
were to be constituted into opposing political parties, it
was evident that the end was near.
249. Oddly enough the constitutionality of the com-
promise of 1820 (§ 197) had never happened to come
before the Supreme Court for consideration, jhe Dred Scott
In 1856-57 it came up for the first time, decision.
One Dred Scott, a Missouri slave who had been taken
to the territory covered by the compromise, and had
therefore sued for his freedom, was sold to a citizen of
another State. Scott then transferred his suit from
the State to the Federal courts, under the power given
to them to try suits between citizens of different States,
and the case came by appeal to the Supreme Court. Its
decision was announced at the beginning of Buchanan's
administration. It put Scott out of court on the ground
that a slave, or the descendant of slaves, could not be
a citizen of the United States or have any standing in
Federal courts. The opinion of the chief-justice went
on to attack the validity of the Missouri compromise, for
the reasons that one of the constitutional functions of
Congress was the protection of property ; that slaves
had been recognized as property by the Constitution j
204 THE UNITED STATES.
and that Congress was bound to protect, not to prohibit,
slavery in the Territories. The mass of the northern
people held that slaves were looked on by the Constitu-
tion, not as property, but as " persons held to service or
labor " by State laws ; that the constitutional function
of Congress was the protection of liberty as well as
property ; and that Congress was thus bound to prohibit,
not to protect, slavery in the Territories. Another step
in the road to disunion was thus taken, as the only
peaceful interpreter of the Constitution was pushed out
of the way. The north flouted the decision of the
Supreme Court, and the storm of angry dissent which
it aroused did the disunionists good service at the south.
From this time the leading newspapers in the south
maintained that the radical southern view first advanced
by Calhoun, and but slowly accepted by other southern
leaders, as to the duty of Congress to protect slavery
in the Territories, had been confirmed by the Supreme
Court; that the northern Republicans had rejected it;
and that even the squatter sovereignty theory of northern
Democrats could no longer be submitted to by the south.
250. The population of the United States in 1860 was
over 31,000,000, an increase of more than 8,000,000 in
. ^ . . , ten years. As the decennial increase of popu-
Admission of "^ ^ ^
Minnesota and latiou bccamc larger, so did the divergence
Oregon. ^£ ^^^ scctious in population, and still more
in wealth and resources. Two more free States came
in during this period, — Minnesota (1858) and Oregon
(1859), — and Kansas was clamoring loudly for the same
privilege. The free and slave States, which had been
almost equal in population in 1790, stood now as 19 to
12. And of the 12,000,000 in slave States, the 4,000,000
slaves and the 250,000 free blacks were not so much
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 205
a factor of strength, as a possible source of weakness
and danger. No serious slave rising had ever taken
place in the south ; but the sudden flaming out of John
Brown's insurrection (1859), and the alarm j^hn Brown's
which it carried through the south, were '■^'*^-
tokens of a danger which added a new horror to the
chances of civil war. It was not wonderful that men,
in the hope of finding some compromise by which to
avoid such a catastrophe, should be willing to give up
everything but principle and even to trench sharply
upon principle itself, nor that offers of compromise
should urge southern leaders farther into the fatal belief
that " the north would not fight."
251. Northern Democrats, under the lead of Douglas,
had been forced already almost to the point of revolt by
the determination of southern senators to prevent the
admission of Kansas as a free State, if not to secure
her admission as a slave State. When the ^. . .
Division of
Democratic convention of 1860 met at Charles- the Democratic
ton, the last strand of the last national polit- ''^'^^'
ical organization parted; the Democratic party itself
was split at last by the slavery question. The southern
delegates demanded a declaration in favor of the duty
of Congress to x)rotect slavery in the Territories. It
was all that the Douglas Democrats could then do to
maintain themselves in a few northern States ; such a
declaration meant political suicide everywhere, and they
voted it down. The convention divided into two bodies.
The southern body adjourned to Richmond, and the
northern and border State convention to Baltimore.
Here the northern delegates, by seating some delegates
friendly to Douglas, provoked a further secession of
border State delegates, who, in company with the Rich-
206 THE UNITED STATES.
mond body, nominated Breckinridge and Lane for Pres-
ident and Vice-President. The remainder of the original
convention nominated Douglas and H. V. Johnson.
252. The remnant of the old Whig and Know-Nothing
parties, now calling itself the Constitutional Union party,
_ ,., ,. , met at Baltimore and nominated Bell and
Constitutional
Union party. Evcrctt. The Ecpublican convention met at
Republican CMcago. Its " platf orm " of 1856 had been
'^^'^^' somewhat broad constructionist in its nature
and leanings, but a strong Democratic element in the
party had prevented it from going too far in this direc-
tion. The election of 1856 had shown that, with the
votes of Pennsylvania and Illinois, the party would then
have been successful, and the Democratic element was
now ready to take almost anything which would secure
the votes of these States. This state of affairs will go to
explain the nomination of Lincoln of Illinois, for Presi-
dent, with Hamlin, a former Democrat, for Vice-Presi-
dent, and the declaration of the platform in favor of a
protective tariff. The mass of the platform was still
devoted to the necessity of excluding slavery from the
Territories. To sum up : the Bell party wished to have
no discussion of slavery ; the Douglas Demo-
and slavery in the crats rcstcd ou squattcr sovcreiguty and the
erri ones, compromise of 1850, but would accept the
decision of the Supreme Court; the E-epublicans de-
manded that Congress should legislate for the prohibition
of slavery in the Territories ; and the southern Demo-
crats demanded that Congress should legislate for the
protection of slavery in the Territories.
253. No candidate received a majority of the popular
vote, Lincoln standing first and Douglas second. But
Lincoln and Hamlin had a clear majority of the elec-
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 207
toral vote, and so were elected, Breckinridge and Lane
coming next. It is worthy of mention that, up to the last
hours of Lincoln's first term of office. Congress
\ . ^ Election of I860.
would always have contained a majority op-
posed to him but for the absence of the members from
the seceding States. The interests of the south and even
of slavery were thus safe enough under an anti-slavery
President. But the drift of events was too plain. Nulli-
fication had come and gone, and the nation feared it no
longer. Even secession by a single State was now almost
out of the question ; the letters of southern governors in
1860, in consultation on the state of affairs, agree that
no State would secede without assurances of support by
others. If this crisis were allowed to slip by without
action, even a sectional secession would soon be impos-
sible. If secession were a right, it must be asserted now
or never.
254. Some assurance of united action must have been
obtained, for South Carolina ventured into secession.
The Democratic revolution which, since 1829,
had compelled the legislatures to give the
choice of presidential electors (§ 119) t(p the people of
the States had not effected South Carolina \ her electors
were still chosen by the legislature. That body, on the
election day of November, 1860, having chosen the State's
electors, remained in session until the telegraph had
brought assurances that Lincoln had secured a sufficient
number of electors to ensure his election ; it then sum-
moned a State convention and adjourned. The State
convention, which is a legislative body chosen for a
special purpose, met December 20, and unanimously
passed an "ordinance of secession," repealing the Acts
by which the State had ratified the Constitution and its
208 THE UNITED STATES.
amendments (§ 108), and dissolving "the Union now
subsisting between South Carolina and other States,
under the name of the United States of America." The
convention took all steps necessary to make the State
ready for war, and adjourned. Similar ordinances were
passed by conventions in Mississippi (January 9, 1861),
Florida (January 10), Alabama (January 11), Georgia
(January 18), Louisiana (January 23), and Texas (Feb-
ruary 1).
255. The opposition in the south did not deny the
right to secede, but the expediency of its exercise.
The argument Their cffort was to elect delegates to the
for secession, gtate conveutious who would vote not to
secede. They were beaten, says A. H. Stephens, by the
cry that the States " could make better terms out of the
Union than in it." That is, the States were to with-
draw individually, suspend the functions of the Federal
Government within their jurisdiction for the time, con-
sider maturely any proposals for guaranties for their
rights in the Union, and return as soon as satisfactory
guaranties should be given. A second point to be noted
is the difference between the notions of a State con-
vention prevalent in the north and in the
Action ^
«t the State con- south. The Northern State convention was
ventions. generally considered as a preliminary body,
whose action was not complete or valid until ratified by
a popular vote. The Southern State convention was
looked upon as the incarnation of the sovereignty of the
State, and its action was not supposed to need a popular
ratification. When the conventions of the seceding
States had adopted the ordinances of secession, they
proceeded to other business. They appointed delegates,
who met at Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, Feb'
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 209
fuary 4, formed a provisional Constitution for the " Con-
federate States/' chose a provisional President and Vice-
President (Jefferson Davis and A. H. Stephens), and
established an army, treasury, and other exec- jhe -confeder-
utive departments. The President and Vice- ^^^ states."
President were inaugurated February 18. The permanent
Constitution, adopted in March, was copied from that of
the United States, with variations meant to maintain
State sovereignty, to give the cabinet seats in Congress,
to prevent the grant of bounties or any protective feat-
ures in the tariff or the maintenance of internal improve-
ments at general expense, and to "recognize and protect"
" the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the
Confederate States."
2^Q. Under what claim of constitutional right all this
was done passes comprehension. That a State conven-
tion should have the final power of decision constitutional
on the question which it was summoned to ^'s^^s.
consider is quite as radical doctrine as has yet been
heard of; that a State convention, summoned to con-
sider the one question of secession, should go on, with
no appeal to any further popular authority or mandate,
to send delegates to meet those of other States and form
a new national Government, which could only exist by
warring on the United States, is a novel feature in
American constitutional law. It was revolution or
nothing. Only in Texas, where the call of the State
convention was so irregular that a popular vote could
hardly be escaped, was any popular vote allowed.
Elsewhere, the functions of the voter ceased when he
voted for delegates to the State convention; he could
only look on helplessly while that body went on to
constitute him a citizen of a new nation of which he had
not dreamed when he voted.
210 THE UNITED STATES.
257. The border States were in two tiers — North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, next to the seceding
The border States, and Delaware, Maryland, Virginia,
states. Kentucky, and Missouri next to the free
States. None of these were willing to secede. There
was, however, one force which might draw them into
secession. A State which did not wish to secede, but
believed in State sovereignty and the abstract right of
secession, would be inclined to take up arms to resist
any attempt by the Federal Government to coerce a
seceding State. In this way, in the following spring,
the original seven seceding States, were reinforced by
four of the border States (§ 267), making their final
number eleven.
258. In the north and west surprisingly little atten-
tion was given to the systematic course of procedure
Feeling in the aloug the Gulf. The people of these sections
north. YfQYQ vcry busy ; they had heard much of this
talk before, and looked upon it as a kind of stage-thunder,
the inevitable accompaniment of recent presidential elec-
tions ; and they expected the difficulty to be settled in
some way. Eepublican politicians, with the exception
of a few, were inclined to refrain from public declara-
tions of intention. Some of them, such as Seward,
showed a disposition to let the " erring sisters " depart
in peace, expecting to make the loss good by accessions
from Canada. A few, like Chandler, believed that there
would be "blood-letting," but most of them were still
doubtful as to the future. Democratic politicians were
hide-bound by their repetition of the phrase " voluntary
Union '^ (§ 180) ; they had not yet hit upon the theory
which carried the War Democrats through the final
struggle, that the sovereign State of New York could
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 211
make war upon tlie sovereign State of South Carolina
for the unfriendly act of secession, and that the war was
waged by the non-seceding against the seceding States.
President Buchanan publicly condemned the doctrine of
secession, though he added a confession of his inability
to see how secession was to be prevented if a State should
be so wilful as to attempt it. Congress did nothing,
except to admit Kansas as a free State and ^^ . .
■•- Admission of
adopt the protective Morrill tariff (§ 276) ; Kansas,
even after its members from the seceding States wiorriii tariff of
had withdrawn, those who remained made no
preparations for conflict, and, at their adjournment in
March, 1861, left the Federal Government naked and
helpless before its enemies.
259. The only sign of life in the body politic, the
half-awakened word of warning from the democracy of
the north and west, was its choice of governors of States.
A remarkable group of men, soon to be known as the
" war governors," — Washburn of Maine, Fair- jhe " war gov-
banks of Vermont, Goodwin of New Hamp- emors."
shire, Andrew of Massachusetts, Sprague of Rhode Island,
Buckingham of Connecticut, Morgan of New York, Olden
of New Jersey, Curtin of Pennsylvania, Dennison of Ohio,
Morton of Indiana, Yates of Illinois, Blair of Michigan,
Randall of Wisconsin, Kirkwood of Iowa, and Ramsey
of Minnesota, — held the executive powers of the North-
ern States in 1861-62. Some of these governors, such as
Andrew and Buckingham, as they saw the struggle come
nearer, went so far as to order the purchase of warlike
material for their States on their private responsibility,
and their action saved days of time. And at all times
they were admirably prompt, methodical, clear-sighted,
and intensely devoted to their one duty.
212 THE UNITED STATES.
260. The little army of tlie United States had been
almost put out of consideration ; wherever its detach-
ments could be found in the south they were surrounded
and forced to surrender and to be transferred to the
north. After secession, and in some of the States even
before it, the forts, arsenals, mints, custom-houses, ship-
yards, and public property of the United States had been
Seizure sclzcd by the authority of the State, and these
United states wcrc held uutil transferred to the new Con-
property. fe(ierate States organization. In the first two
months of 1861 the authority of the United States was
paralyzed in seven States, and in at least seven more
its future authority seemed of very doubtful duration.
261. Only a few forts, of all the magnificent structures
with which the nation had dotted the southern coast,
Position of the remained to it — the forts near Key West,
remaining forts, j^ortrcss Mouroc at the mouth of Chesapeake
Bay, Fort Pickens at Pensacola, and Fort Sumter in
Charleston harbor. Both the last-named were beleaguered
by hostile batteries, but the administration of President
Buchanan, intent on maintaining the peace until the new
administration should come in, instructed their command-
ing officers to refrain from any acts tending to open con-
flict. The Federal officers, therefore, were obliged to
look idly on while every preparation was made for their
destruction, and even while a vessel bearing supplies for
Fort Sumter was driven back by the batteries between it
and the sea.
262. The divergence between the two sections of the
country had thus passed into disunion, and was soon to
Slavery and dis- P^ss luto opcu hostlllty. The legal recogni-
union. ^JQj^ Q-f ^|-^g custom of slavcry, acting upon and
reacted upon by every step in their economic development
TENDENCIES TO DISUNION. 213
and every difference in their natural characteristics, sur-
roundingSj and institutions, had carried north and south
further and faster apart, until the elements of a distinct
nationality had appeared in the latter. Slavery had had
somewhat the same effect on the south that democracy
had had on the colonies. In the latter case the aristoc-
racy of the mother country had made a very feeble
struggle to maintain the unity of its empire. It remained
to be seen, in the American case, whether democracy
would do better.
214 THE UNITED STATES.
THE CIVIL WAR.
1861-65.
263. Secession had taken away many of the men who
had for years managed the Federal Government, and who
understood its workings. Lincohi's party was in power
for the first time ; his officers were new to the routine of
Federal administration ; and the circumstances with which
they were called upon to deal were such as to daunt any
r. . . spirit. The Government had become so nearly
Embarrassments r •^
of the bankrupt in the closing days of Buchanan's
administration that it had only escaped by
paying double interest, and that by the special favor of
the New York banks, which obtained in return the ap-
pointment of Dix as secretary of the treasury. The army
had been almost broken up by the captures of men and
material and by resignations of competent and trusted
officers. The navy had come to such a pass that, in Feb-
ruary, 1861, a house committee reported that only two
vessels, one of twenty, the other of two guns, were avail-
able for the defence of the entire Atlantic coast. And,
to complicate all difficulties, a horde of clamorous office-
seekers crowded Washington.
264. Before many weeks of Lincoln's administration
had passed, the starting of an expedition to provision
Fort Sumter brought on an attack by the batteries around
THE CIVIL WAR. 215
the fort, and, after a bombardment of thirty-six hours,
the fort surrendered (April 14, 1861). It is Surrender of
not necessary to rehearse the familiar story R°^^^"^Jhe
of the outburst of feeling which followed this north.
event and the proclamation of President Lincoln calling
for volunteers, the mustering of men, the eagerness of
States, cities, and villages to hurry volunteers forward
and to supply money to their own Government in its
need. The 75,000 volunteers called for were supplied
three or four times over, and those who were refused felt
the refusal as a personal deprivation.
265. There had been some belief in the south that the
north-west would take no part in the impending conflict,
and that its people could be persuaded to keep
up friendly relations with the new nationality
until the final treaty of peace should establish all the
fragments of the late Union upon an international basis.
In the spring months of 1861 Douglas, who had been
denounced as the tool of the southern slave-holders, was
spending the closing days of life in expressing the deter-
mination of the north-west that it would never submit to
have "a line of custom-houses " between it and the ocean.
The batteries which Confederate authority was erecting
on the banks of the Mississippi were fuel to the flame.
Far-off California, which had been considered neutral by
all parties, pronounced as unequivocally for the national
authority.
266. The shock of arms put an end to opposition in
the south as well. The peculiar isolation of life in the
south precluded the more ignorant voter from "Following the
any comparisons of the power of his State states."
with any other 5 to him it was almost inconceivable that
his State should own or have a superior. The better
216 THE UNITED STATES.
educated men, of wider experience, liad been trained to
tliink State sovereignty the foundation of civil liberty,
and, when their State spoke, they felt bound to " follow
their State." The President of the Confederate States
issued his call for men, and it was also more than met.
On both sides of the line armed men were hurrying to
a meeting.
267. Lincoln's call for troops met with an angry re-
ception wherever the doctrine of State sovereignty had
The border ^ foothold. The govcmors of the border
states. States (§ 257) generally returned it with a
refusal to furnish any troops. Two States, North Car-
olina and Arkansas, seceded and joined the Confederate
States. In two others, Virginia and Tennessee, the
State politicians formed "military leagues" with the
Confederacy, allowing Confederate troops to take pos-
session of the States, and then submitted the question
of secession to "popular vote." The secession of these
States was thus accomplished, and E-ichmond became the
Confederate capital. The same process was attempted
in Missouri, but failed, and the State remained loyal.
The politician class in Maryland and Kentucky took the
extraordinary course of attempting to maintain neu-
trality ; but the growing power of the Federal Gov-
ernment soon enabled the people of the two States to
resume control of their governments and give consistent
support to the Union. Kentucky, however, had troops
in the Confederate armies ; and one of her citizens, the
late Vice-President, John C. Breckinridge, left his place
in the senate and became an officer in the Confederate
service. Delaware cast her lot from the first with the
Union.
268. The first blood of the war was shed in the streets
THE CIVIL WAR. 217
of Baltimore, when a mob attempted to stop Massa-
€liiisetts troops on their way to Washington
(April 19). For a time there was difficulty
in getting troops through Maryland because of the
active hostility of a part of its people, but this was
overcome, and the national capital was made secure.
The Confederate lines had been pushed up to Manassas
Junction, about thirty miles from Washington. When
Congress, called into special session by the President for
July 4, came together, the outline of the Confederate
States had been fixed. Their line of defence held the
left bank of the Potomac from Fortress Monroe nearly
to Washington ; thence, at a distance of some thirty
miles from the river, to Harper's Ferry ; thence through
the mountains of western Virginia and the southern part
of Kentucky, crossing the Mississippi a little below
Cairo ; thence through southern Missouri to the eastern
border of Kansas; and thence south-west through the
Indian Territory and along the northern boundary of
Texas to the Eio Grande. The length of the line, in-
cluding also the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, has been
estimated at 11,000 miles. The territory within it com-
prised about 800,000 square miles, with a population of
over 9,000,000 and great natural resources. Its cotton
was almost essential to the manufactories of the world ;
in exchange for it every munition of war could be pro-
cured ; and it was hardly possible to blockade
a coast over 3000 miles in length, on which
the blockading force had but one port of refuge, and
that about the middle of the line. Nevertheless Presi-
dent Lincoln issued his proclamation announcing the
blockade of the southern coast, a proclamation from
President Davis appearing with it, offering letters of
218 THE UNITED STATES.
marque and reprisal against the commerce of tlie United
States to private vessels. The news brought out proc-
lamations of neutrality from Great Britain and France,
and, according to subsequent decisions of the Supreme
Court, made the struggle a civil war, though the minority
held that this did not occur legally until the Act of
Congress of July 13, 1861, authorizing the President, in
case of insurrection, to shut up ports and suspend com-
mercial intercourse with the inhabitants of the revolted
district.
269. The President found himself compelled to assume
powers never granted to the executive authority, trusting
to the subsequent action of Congress to validate his action.
He had to raise and support armies and navies ; he even
had to authorize seizures of necessary property, of rail-
road and telegraph lines, arrests of suspected persons, and
Suspension of the suspcusiou of the writ of habeas corpus in
habeas corpus, certain districts. Congress supported him,
and proceeded in 1863 to give the President power to
suspend the writ anywhere in the United States, which
he proceeded to do (§ 115). The Supreme Court, after
the war, decided that no branch of the Government had
power to suspend the writ in districts where the courts
were open, — that the privilege of the writ might be sus-
pended as to persons properly involved in the war, but
that the writ was still to issue, the court deciding whether
the person came within the classes to whom the suspen-
sion applied. This decision, however, did not come until
" arbitrary arrests,'' as they were called, had been a feature
of the entire war. A similar suspension of the writ took
place in the Confederate States.
270. When Congress met (July 4, 1861), the absence
of southern members had made it heavily Republican.
THE CIVIL WAR. 219
It decided to consider no business but that connected
with the war, authorized a loan and the raising of 500,000
volunteers, and made confiscation of property
a penalty of rebellion. While it was in
session the first serious battle of the war —
Bull Run, or Manassas — took place (July 21), and
resulted in the defeat of the Federal army. Both ar-
mies were as yet so ill-trained that the victors gained
nothing from their success. In the west the
battle of Wilson's Creek, near Springfield, Mo.
(August 10), was either a drawn battle or a Confederate
victory ; but here also the victors rather lost than gained
ground after it. The captures of Fort Hatteras, ^^^^^^^^^ ^^^
K C. (August 29), and Port Royal, S. C. PortRoyai.
(November 7), gave the blockading fleets two The "Trent
important harbors of refuge. The over-zealous *^^^^"
action of a naval officer in taking the Confederate envoys
Mason and Slidell out of a British mail-steamer sailing
between two neutral ports almost brought about a col-
lision between the United States and Great Britain in
November. But the American precedents were all
against the United States (§ 172), and the envoys were
given up.
271. G-eneral McClellan, in the early months of the
war, had led a force of western troops across the
Ohio river, entered western Virginia, and Army of the
beaten the Confederate armies in several Potomac.
battles. After the battle of Bull Run he was called to
Washington and put in command of all the armies on
the retirement of Scott. His genius for organization,
and the unbounded confidence of the people in him,
enabled him to form the troops at and near Washington
into the first great army of the war — the army of the
220 THE UNITED STATES.
Potomac. It was held, however, too much, in idleness to
suit the eagerness of the people and the administration ;
and the dissatisfaction grew louder as the winter of
1861-62 passed away without any forward movement
(§ 284).
272. If the army was idle, Congress was not. The
broad-construction tendencies of the party showed them-
selves more plainly as the war grew more serious ; there
was an increasing disposition to cut every knot by legis-
lation, with less regard to the constitutionality of the
legislation. A paper currency, commonly
aper currency, -j^^^^^ ^^ " grccn-backs," was adopted and
^'''''^" made legal tender (February 25, 1862). The
first symptoms of a disposition to attack slavery ap-
peared : slavery was prohibited in the District of Colum-
bia and the Territories; the army was forbidden to
surrender escaped slaves to their owners : and slaves of
insurgents were ordered to be confiscated. In addition
to a Homestead Act, giving public lands to actual settlers
at reduced rates (§ 200), Congress began a further devel-
opment of the system of granting public lands to railway
corporations.
273. The railway system of the United States was but
twenty years old in 1850 (§ 230), but it had become to
assume some consistency. The day of short
a. ways I n . ^^^ discomiectcd lines had passed, and the
connections which were to develop into railway systems
had appeared. Consolidation of smaller companies had
begun ; the all-rail route across the State of ISTew York
was made up of more than a dozen original companies at
its consolidation in 1853. The Erie railway was formed
in 1851; and another western route — the Pennsylvania
— was formed in 1854. These were at least the germs
THE CIVIL WAR. 221
of great trunk lines (§ 312). The cost of American rail-
ways has been only from one-half to one-fourth of the
cost of European railways ; but an investment in a far
western railway in 1850-60 was an extra-hazardous risk.
Not only did social conditions make any form of business
hazardous ; the new railway often had to enter a terri-
tory bare of population, and there create its own towns,
farms, and traffic. Whether it could do so was so doubt-
ful as to make additional inducements to capital neces-
sary. The means attempted by Congress in 1850, in the
case of the Illinois Central Eailroad, was to
grant public lands to the corporation, reserv- ^" ^^^" ^'
ing to the United States the alternate sections. The
expectation was that the railway, for the purpose of
building up traffic, would sell lands to actual settlers at
low rates, and that the value of the reserved lands would
thus be increased. At first grants were made to the
States for the benefit of the corporations ; the Act of
1862 made the grant directly to the corporation.
274. The vital military and political necessity of an
immediate railway connection with the Pacific coast was
hardly open to doubt in 1862 ; but the neces- jhe Pacific
sity hardly justified the terms which were railways.
offered and taken. The Union Pacific Railroad was in-
corporated ; the United States Government was to issue
to it bonds ; on the completion of each forty miles, to the
amount of $16,000 per mile, to be a first mortgage;
through Utah and Nevada, the aid was to be doubled,
and for some 300 miles of mountain building to be
trebled; and, in addition to this, alternate sections of
land were granted. The land-grant system, thus begun,
was carried on in the cases of a large number of other
roads, the largest single grants being those of 47,000,000
222 THE UNITED STATES.
acres to the Northern Pacific (1864) and of 42,000,000
to the Atlantic and Pacific line (1866).
275. Specie payments had been suspended almost
everywhere towards the end of 1861 ; but the price of
gold was but 102.5 at the beginning of 1862.
Prices in paper, .,.-»«-., . . ,
About May its price m paper currency began
to rise. It touched 170 during the next year, and 285 in
1864; but the real price probably never went much
above 250. As gold rose, specie disappeared. Other
articles felt the influence in currency prices. Mr. D. A.
Wells, in 1866, estimated that prices and rents had risen
ninety per cent, since 1861, while wages had not risen
more than sixty ]3er cent.
276. The duties on imports were driven higher than
the Morrill tariff had ever contemplated (§ 258). The
Tariff and S'^Gragc ratcs, which had been eighteen per
internal revenue cciit. ou dutiable articlcs and twclvc pcr cent,
on the aggregate in 1860-61, rose, before the
end of the war, to nearly fifty per cent, on dutiable
articles and thirty-five per cent, on the aggregate.
Domestic manufactures sprang into new life under such
hothouse encouragement; every one who had spare
wealth converted it into manufacturing capital. The
probability of such a result had been the means of
getting votes for an increased tariff; free-traders had
voted for it as well as protectionists. For the tariff was
only a means of getting capital into positions in which
taxation could be applied to it, and the "internal
revenue" taxation was merciless beyond precedent. The
annual increase of wealth from capital was then about
$550,000,000 ; the internal revenue taxation on it rose
in 1866 to $310,000,000, or nearly sixty per cent. Even
after the war the taxation was kept up unflinchingly,
THE CIVIL WAR. 223
until the reduction of the national debt had brought it
to a point where it was evidently at the mercy of time
(§ 322).
277. The stress of all this upon the poor must have
been great, but it was relieved in part by the bond
system on which the war was conducted
(§ 322). While the armies and navies were
shooting off large blocks of the crops of 1880 or 1890,
work and wages were abundant for all who were compe-
tent for them. It is true, then, that the poor paid most
of the cost of the war ; it is also true that the poor had
shared in that anticipation of the future which had been
forced on the country, and that, when the drafts on the
future came to be redeemed, it was done mainly by taxa-
tion on luxuries. The destruction of a northern railroad
meant more work for northern iron mills and their
workmen. The destruction of a southern road was an
unmitigated injury ; it had to be made good at once, by
paper issues ; the south could make no drafts on the
future, by bond issues, for the blockade had put cotton
out of the game, and southern bonds were hardly salable.
Every expense had to be met by paper issues ; pap^r issues in
each issue forced prices higher ; every rise in the south.
prices called for an increased issue of paper, with
increased effects for evil. A Behel War-ClerJc's Diary
gives the following as the prices in the Eichmond
market for May, 1864 : " Boots, two hundred dollars ;
coats, three hundred and fifty dollars; pantaloons, one
hundred dollars ; shoes, one hundred and twenty-five
dollars ; flour, two hundred and seventy-five dollars per
barrel ; meal, sixty to eighty dollars per bushel ; bacon,
nine dollars per pound; no beef in market; chickens,
thirty dollars per pair ; shad, twenty dollars ^ potatoes,
224 THE UNITED STATES.
twenty-five dollars per bushel; turnip greens, foui
dollars per peck ; wMte beans, four dollars per quart or
one hundred and twenty dollars per bushel; butter,
fifteen dollars per pound ; lard same ; wood, fifty dollars
per cord." How the rise in salaries and wages, always
far slower than other prices, could meet such prices as
these, one must be left to imagine. It can only be said
that most of the burden was really sustained by the
women of the south.
278. The complete lack of manufactures told heavily
against the south from the beginning. As men were
drawn from agriculture in the north and
west, the increased demand for labor was
shaded off into an increased demand for agricultural
machinery (§ 231) ; every increased percentage of power
in reaping-machines liberated so many men for service
at the front. The reaping-machines of the south — the
slaves — were incapable of any such improvement, and,
besides, required the presence of a portion of the pos-
sible fighting-men at home to watch them. There is
an evident significance in the exemption from military
duty in the Confederate States of " one agriculturist on
such farm, where there is no white male adult not liable
to duty, employing fifteen able-bodied slaves between
ten and fifty years of age." But, to the honor of the
enslaved race, no insurrection took place.
279. The pressing need for men in the army made the
Confederate Congress utterly unable to withstand the
Confederate g^'o^tl'- of exccutivc powcr. Its bills wcre
Congress and prepared by the cabinet, and the action of
Congress was quite perfunctory. The suspen-
sion of the writ of habeas corpus, and the vast powers
granted to President Davis, or assumed by him under the
THE CIVIL WAR. 225
plea of military necessity, with, tlie absence of a watchful
and well-informed public opinion, made the Confederate
Government by degrees almost a despotism. It was not
until the closing months of the war that the expiring
Confederate Congress mustered up courage enough to
oppose the President's will. The organized and even radi-
cal opposition to the war in the north, the meddlesomeness
of Congress and its " committees on the conduct of the
war," were no doubt unpleasant to Lincoln ; but they
carried the country through the crisis without the effects
visible in the south.
280. Another Act of Federal legislation — the National
Bank Act — should be mentioned here, as it was closely
connected with the sale of bonds (February National bank-
25, 1863). The banks were to be organized, i^s system.
and, on depositing United States bonds at Washington,
were to be permitted to issue notes up to ninety per cent,
of the value of the bonds deposited. As the redemption
of the notes is thus assured, they circulate without ques-
tion all over the United States. By a subsequent Act
the remaining State bank circulation was taxed out of
existence. The national banks are still in operation ; but
the disappearance of United States bonds threatens their
continuance.
281. At the beginning of 1862 the lines of demarcation
between the two powers had become plainly marked. The
western part of Virginia had separated itself Admission of
from the parent State, and was admitted as a ^^^^ Virginia.
State (1863) under the name of West Virginia. It was
certain that Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri
had been saved to the Union, and that the battle was
to be fought out in the territory to the south of them.
In the west Grant, commanding a part of Buell's gen-
226 THE UNITED STATES.
eral forces, moved m]) tlie Tennessee river and broke the
centre of the long Confederate line by the capture of
Forts Henry and T'orts Hcnrj and Donelson (February, 1862).
Doneison. ^j^g collapse of the Confederate line opened
the way for the occupation of almost all western Ten-
nessee, including its capital, and the theatre of war was
moved far forward to the southern boundary of the State,
an advance of fully 200 miles into the heart of the Con-
federacy. It had been shown already that the successful
officers were to be those from West Point ; but even they
were getting their first experience in the handling of
large masses of men. Grant and Sherman owed a part of
that experience to the military genius of the Confederate
commander, Albert S. Johnston, whose sudden attack on
Pittsburgh tlieir army at Pittsburgh Landing (April 6)
Landing, brouglit ou the first great battle of the war.
The Federal forces held out stubbornly until the arrival
of Buell's advance guard relieved the pressure, and the
Confederates were driven back to Corinth, with the
heavy loss of their commander, who had been mortally
wounded. Steady advances brought the Union armies to
Corinth, an important railroad centre, in June ;
and the Mississippi was opened up as far as
Memphis by these successes of the armies and by the
hard fighting of the gunboats at Island Number Ten and
other places. At the northern boundary of the State of
Mississippi the Union advance stopped for a time, but
what had been gained was held.
282. At the same time the Mississippi was opened in
part from below. A great naval expedition under Far-
ragut and Porter, with a land force under Butler, sailing
from Fort Monroe, came to the mouth of the Mississippi.
Farragut ran past the forts above the mouth of the river,
THE CIVIL WAR. 227
sank the ironclads which met him, and captured New
Orleans (April 25). The land forces then
took possession of it and the forts, while the
fleet cleared the river of obstacles and Confederate ves-
sels as far as Port Hudson and Vicksburg, where the
Confederate works were situated on bluffs too high for a
naval attack.
283. The energy of the combatants had already brought
ironclad vessels to the test which they had not yet met
elsewhere, that of actual combat. Western ingenuity had
produced a simple and excellent type of river ironclad by
cutting down river steamers and plating them with rail-
road or other iron. The type needed for the rougher
Eastern waters was different, and the Confederates con-
verted the frigate " Merrimac," captured at jhe "Monitor ■■
Norfolk, into an ironclad of a more sea-going ^"^ " Merrimac"
type. The battle between her and the " Monitor " (March
8), in Hampton Eoads, was indecisive ; but the " Merri-
mac " was driven back to Norfolk, the blockade and the
cities of the Atlantic coast, which had seemed to be at
its mercy, were saved, and the day of wooden war- vessels
was seen to be over. Before the end of the following
year there were 75 ironclads in the United States navy ;
the number of vessels had increased to 588, with 4443
guns, and 35,000 men.
284. The hundred miles between Washington and Eich-
mond are crossed by numberless streams, flowing south-
east, and offering strong defensive positions, of jhe peninsula
which the Confederates had taken advantage, campaign.
McClellan (§ 271) therefore wished to move his army to
Fort Monroe and attack Richmond from that poij^t, on
the ground of Cornwallis's campaign of 17S1. Ho be-
Ueved that such a movement would force the Confederate
228 THE UNITED STATES.
armies away from Washington to meet him. The adminis-
tration, believing that such a movement would only open
the way for the enemy to capture Washington — a more
valuable prize than Richmond — gave directions that a
part of McClellan's force, under McDowell, should take
the overland route as far as Fredericksburg, while the
rest, under McClellan, were moving up the peninsula
towards E-ichmond, and that, as the enemy withdrew to
meet the latter, a junction of the two divisions should
take place, so as to carry out McClellan's plans without
uncovering Washington. But a month was spent in be-
sieging Yorktown; when the attempt was made to form
the junction with McDowell it involved the separation of
the two wings by the little river Chickahominy ; and in
May the spring rains turned the little stream into a wide
river, and the army was divided, Joseph E. Johnston,
the Confederate commander, at once attacked the weaker
Seven Pines and ^lug at Scvcu Piucs and Fair Oaks, but was
Fair Oaks, bcatcu, and was himself wounded and com-
pelled to leave the service for a time. This event gave
his place to Eobert E. Lee, whose only military service
in the war up to this time had been a failure in western
Virginia. He was now to begin, in conjunction with
Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson, a series of brilliant
campaigns.
285. From Staunton, one hundred miles west of Rich-
mond, the Shenandoah valley extends north-east to the
Potomac, whence there is an easy march of
seventy-five miles south-east to Washington.
Jackpon struck the Union forces in the valley, drove
them to the Potomac, and excited such alarm in Wash-
ington that McDowell's troops were hastily withdrawn
from Fredericksburg. Having thus spoiled McClellan's
THE CIVIL WAR. 229
plan of junction, and taken some 40,000 men from him,
Jackson hurried to Richmond. Lee met him on the
north side of the Cliickahominy, and the two armies
attacked McClellan's right wing at Gaines's Mill, and
cut the connection between it and its base of supplies on
the York river (June 26) . Unable to reunite his wings
and regain his base, McClellan was forced to draw his
right wing south, and attempt to establish another base
on the James river. Lee and Jackson followed hard on
his retreat, and the " seven days' battles " were jhe ■• seven
the most desperate of the war up to this '^^^^' Matties."
time, the principal battles being those of Savage's Sta-
tion (June 29), Glendale (June 30), and Malvern Hill
(July 1). The last ended the series, for McClellan had
reached the James, and his army had fixed itself in a
position from which it could not be driven.
286. Pope had succeeded McDowell, and Jackson at-
tacked and beat him on the battle-ground of Bull Run
(August 29), driving his army towards Wash- pope-s
ington. McClellan was at once recalled to campaign,
defend the capital. As he withdrew from the peninsula,
Lee joined Jackson, and the whole Confederate army,
passing to the north-west of Washington, began the first
invasion of the north. As it passed through the moun-
tains of north-western Maryland, the army of the Poto-
mac, which had been brought up through Maryland in
pursuit, reached its rear, and forced it to turn and fight
the battle of Antietam, or Sharpsburg, Sep-
tember 17. Both sides claimed the victory,
but Lee was compelled to recross the Potomac to his
former position. McClellan was blamed for the slow-
ness of his pursuit and was removed, Burnside becom-
ing his successor. The only great event of his term
230 THE UNITED STATES.
of command was his attempt to storm the heights behind
Fredericks- Fredericksbuig (December 13) and the ter-
burg. j,i^]^g slaughter of his defeat. Hooker was
then put in his place. The year 1862 thus closed with
the opposing armies in about the same positions as at
the beginning of the war.
287. At the beginning of the war the people and
leaders of the north had not desired to interfere with
slavery, but circumstances had been too strong for them.
Lincoln had declared that he meant to save the Union as
he best could, — by preserving slavery, by destroying it,
or by destroying part and preserving part of it. Just
The Emancipation after the battle of Antietam he issued his
Proclamation, proclamation calling on the revolted States to
return to their allegiance before the following January 1,
otherwise their slaves would be declared free men. No
State returned, and the threatened declaration was issued
January 1, 1863. As President, Lincoln could issue no
such declaration; as commander-in-chief of the armies
and navies of the United States, he could issue directions
only as to the territory within his lines ; but the Eman-
cipation Proclamation applied only to territory outside
of his lines. It has therefore been debated whether the
proclamation was in reality of any force. It may fairly
be taken as an announcement of the policy which was to
guide the army, and as a declaration of freedom taking
effect as the lines advanced. At all events, this was
its exact effect. Its international importance was far
greater. The locking up of the world's source of cotton-
supply had been a general calamity, and the Confederate
Government and people had steadily expected that the
English and French G-overnments, or at least one of
them, would intervene in the war for the purpose of
THE CIVIL WAR. 231
raising the blockade and releasing tlie southern cotton.
The conversion of the struggle into a crusade against
slavery made intervention impossible for G-overnments
whose peoples had now a controlling influence on their
policy, and intelligence enough to understand the issue
which had now been made.
288. Confederate agents in England were numerous
and active. Taking advantage of every loophole in the
British Foreign Enlistment Act they built confederate
and sent to sea the " Alabama " and " Florida," p^i^^t^ers.
which for a time almost drove American commerce from
the ocean. Whenever they were closely pursued by
United States vessels they took refuge in neutral ports
until a safe opportunity occurred to put to sea again.
Another, the "Georgia,'^ was added in 1863. All three
were destroyed in 1864, — the " Florida " by a violation
of Brazilian neutrality, the " Georgia " after an attempt
to transfer her to neutral owners, and the "Alabama"
after a brief sea-fight with the "Kearsarge," off Cher-
bourg (June 19). Confederate attempts to have iron-
clads equipped in England and France were unsuccessful.
289. In the west (§ 281) Bragg, now in command of
the Confederate forces, turned the right of the Union
line in southern Tennessee, and began an invasion of
Kentucky about the time when Lee was beginning his
invasion of the north. Carrying off much booty, he re-
tired into Tennessee. Towards the end of the year Kose-
crans moved forward from Nashville to attack him. The
armies met at Murfreesboro', and fought a
drawn battle during the last day of the year
1862 and the first two days of January, 1863. The west-
ern armies were now in four parts, — that of Eosecrans
Hear Murfreesboro', that of Grant near Gorinth, that of
232 THE UNITED STATES.
Schofield in Missouri and Arkansas, and that of Banks in
Louisiana. The complete opening of the Mississippi
being the great object, the burden of the work fell to
Grant, who was nearest the river. Vicksburg was the
objective point, and Grant at first attempted to take it
from the opposite or western bank of the river. Failing
here, he moved south to a favorable point for crossing,
and used the river fleet to transfer his army to the eastern
bank. He was now on the Vicksburg side of
the river. J. E. Johnston was north-east of
him at Jackson, with a weaker army ; the bulk of the
Confederate forces was at or near Vicksburg, under Pem-
berton. Johnston wanted no siege of Vicksburg; Pember-
ton wanted no junction with Johnston, which might cost
him the glory of defeating Grant ; and Grant solved their
difficulty for them. Moving north-east he struck John-
ston's army near Jackson, beat it, and drove it out of any
possibility of junction. He then turned westward, fight-
ing several sharp battles as he went, and late in May he
had Pemberton shut up in Vicksburg. His lines were
maintained for six weeks, and then (July 4, 1863) the
finest Confederate army in the west surrendered. Port
Hudson surrendered to Banks five days later : the Mis-
Port Hudson, sissippi was opened from end to end, and the
Opening of the Confederacy was cleft in twain. From this
Mississippi, iiYRQ communication between the two parts of
the Confederate States became increasingly more difficult,
and the transfer of supplies from the rich country west of
the Mississippi was almost at an end. There was little
further fighting to the west of the great river, except an
intermittent guerilla warfare and the defeat of Banks's
expedition against north-western Louisiana early in 1864.
When the war ceased in the east, the isolated western
half of the Confederacy fell with it.
th:e civil war. 233
290. While Grant was besieging Yicksburg, Eosecrans
had begun to move from the eastern end of the Union
line in Tennessee against Bragg at Chattanooga. He
drove Bragg through the place, and a dozen miles beyond
it, into Georgia. Here the Confederate army
took position behind Chickamauga creek, and "^ ^^^"s^-
inflicted a complete defeat upon the pursuing Union forces
(September 19-20, 1863). Thomas covered the rear stub-
bornly, and secured a safe retreat into Chattanooga, but
the possession of the mountains around the place enabled
Bragg to cut off almost all roads of further retreat and
establish a siege of Chattanooga. Bragg was so con-
fident of success that he detached a part of his army,
under Longstreet, to besiege Knoxville, in eastern Ten-
nessee. Grant was ordered to take command at Chatta-
nooga, and went thither, taking Sherman and others of
the officers who had taken part in his Vicksburg campaign.
He soon opened new routes of communication to the rear,
supplied and reinforced his army, and began to prepare
for the storming of the mountains before him. His as-,
saults on Lookout Mountain and Missionary Eidge (No-
vember 23-25) were among the most dramatic , ,
^ ^ Lookout Moun-
and successful of the war. Bragg was driven tain and Mission-
out of all his positions and back to Dalton, ^'^ ^"^^^"
where Davis was compelled by the complaints of his
people to remove him, and appoint J. E. Johnston his
successor. Longstreet broke up the siege of Knoxville,
and made good his retreat across the mountains into Vir-
ginia to join Lee.
291. The army of the Potomac, under Hooker, kept
its place near Fredericksburg (§ 286) until May, 1863.
Hooker then began a movement across the Eapidan
towards Eichmond and was defeated in the battle of Chan-
234 THE UNITED STATES.
cellorsville (May 2-3). The victorious army suffered the
severest of losses in the death of Jackson, but this did
not check Lee's preparations for a second in-
vasion of the north, which began the next
month. As his army moved northwards, very nearly on
the route which it had followed the year before, the army
of the Potomac held a parallel course through Mary-
land and into Pennsylvania. The Confederate forces
penetrated farther than in 1862 ; their advance came
almost to Harrisburg, and threw the neighboring north-
ern cities into great alarm ; but the pursuing army,
now under Meade, met Lee at Gettysburg (July 1-3)
and defeated him. The Confederate army,
assaulting its enemy in very strong positions,
suffered losses which were almost irreparable, and it was
never again quite the same army as before Gettysburg.
Some northern cities were inclined to think that Lee's
former successes had really been due to Jackson's genius,
and that he had lost his power in losing Jackson. The
campaign of 1864 was to prove the contrary. The cus-
tomary retreat brought the two armies back to very
nearly the same positions which they had occupied at
the beginning of the war, the Rappahannock flowing
between them. Here they remained until the following
spring.
292. The turning point of the war was evidently in the
early days of July, 1863, when the victories of Vicks-
The current of burg and Gettysburg came together. The
success changes, national Govemmcnt had at the beginning cut
the Confederate States down to a much smaller area than
might well have been expected ; its armies had pushed
the besieging lines far into the hostile territory, and
had held the ground which they had gained ; and the war
THE CIVIL WAR. 235
itself had developed a class of generals who cared less for
the conquest of territory than for attacking and destroy-
ing the opposing armies. The great drafts on the future
which the credit of the Federal Government enabled the
north to make gave it also a startling appearance of
prosperity ; so far from feeling the war, it was driving
production of every kind to a higher pitch than ever be-
fore. The cities began to show greater evidences of
wealth, and new rich men appeared, many of them being
the " shoddy aristocracy," who had acquired wealth by
mis-serving the Government, but more being able men
who had grasped the sudden opportunities offered by the
changes of affairs.
293. The war had not merely developed improved
weapons and munitions of war ; it had also spurred the
people on to a more careful attention to the welfare of
the soldiers, the fighting men drawn from their own
number. The Sanitary Commission, the Christian Com-
mission, and other voluntary associations for the physical
and moral care of soldiers received and disbursed very
large sums. The national Government was paying an
average amount of $2,000,000 per day for the prosecu-
tion of the war, and, in spite of the severest taxation, the
debt grew to $500,000,000 in June, 1862, to twice that
amount a year later, to $1,700,000,000 in June, 1864, and
reached its maximum August 31, 1865, — $2,845,907,626.
But this lavish expenditure was directed with energy and
judgment. The blockading fleets were kept in perfect
order and with every condition of success. The railroad
and telegraph were brought into systematic use for the
first time in modern warfare. Late in 1863 Stanton, the
secretary of war, moved two corps of 23,000 men from
Washington to Chattanooga, 1200 miles, in seven days.
236 THE UNITED STATES.
A year later he moved another corps, 15,000 strong, from
Tennessee to Washington in eleven days, and within a
month had collected vessels and transferred it to North
Carolina. Towards the end of the war, when the capacity
of the railroad for war purposes had been fully learned,
these sudden transfers of troops by the Federal Govern-
ment almost neutralized the Confederate advantage of
interior lines.
294. On the other hand, the Federal armies now held
almost all the great southern through lines of railroad,
except the Georgia lines and those which supplied Lee
from the south (§ 296). The want of the southern peo-
ple was merely growing in degree, not in kind. The
conscription, sweeping from the first, had be-
onscrip ion. ^^^^ omuivorous ; towards the end of the war
every man between seventeen and fifty-five was legally
liable to service, and in practice the only limit was
physical incapacity. In 1863 the Federal Government
also was driven to conscription. The first attempts to
carry it out resulted in forcible resistance in several
places, the worst being the " draft riots " in New York
(July), when the .city was in the hands of the mob for
several days. All the resistance was put down ; but ex-
emptions and substitute purchases were so freely per-
mitted that the draft in the north had little effect except
as a stimulus to the States in filling their quotas of vol-
unteers by voting bounties.
295. Early in 1864 Grant (§ 290) was made lieutenant-
general, with the command of all the armies. He went
Grant and sher- to Washington to mcct Lee, leaving Sherman
'"^"- to face Johnston at Dalton. Events had thus
brought the two ablest of the Confederate generals oppo-
site the two men who were the best product of the war on
THE CIVIL WAR. 237
the northern side. It remained to be seen whether Lee,
with his army of northern Virginia, could resist the
methods by which Grant and Sherman had won almost
all the great table-land which occupies the heart of the
country east of the Mississippi. And it remained to be
seen, also, whether the reputation which Grant had won
at a distance from the political atmosphere of Washings
ton would not wither in his new position. It was neces-
sary for him to take the overland route to Richmond, or
meet McClellan's fate. He did not hesitate. Early in
May, 1864, with about twice as many men (125,000) as
Lee, he entered the " Wilderness ^^ on the other side of
the Rapidan. At the same time he sent 30,000 men, un-
der Butler, up the James river; but this part of his
plan proved of comparatively little service.
296. Two weeks' hard fighting in the Wilderness and
at Spotsylvania Court House (May 5-18), and four days
more at North Anna (May 23-27), with flank .. wilderness"
movements as a means of forcing Lee out of campaign.
positions too strong to be taken from the front, brought
the army of the Potomac to Cold Harbor, in the imme-
diate defences of Richmond. One assault, bloodily re-
pulsed, showed that there was no thoroughfare in this
direction. Lee had so diligently prepared that his posi-
tion became stronger as he was driven into greater con-
centration ', and Grant began to move along the eastern
face of the line of Confederate fortifications, striking at
them as he passed them, but finding no weak spot. As
he crossed the James river and reached Petersburg, he
came at last into dangerous proximity to the
railroads which brought Lee's supplies from ^ ^^^ "'^'
the south — the Weldon Railroad, running directly
south, the Danville Railroad, running south-west, and
238 THE UNITED STATES.
the Southside Eailroad, running west. At this end of his
line, therefore, Lee kept the best part of his troops, and
resisted with increasing stubbornness Grant's efforts to
carry his lines farther to the south-west or to reach the
railroads. Eesorting to the plan which had been so
effective with McClellan, he sent Early on a raid up the
Shenandoah valley to threaten Washington (July). But
Early was not Jackson, and he returned with no more
success than the frightening of the authorities at Wash-
ington. Grant put Sheridan in command in the valley,
and he beat Early at Cedar Creek (October), scattering
his army for the remainder of the war. In August
Grant succeeded in seizing a few miles of the Weldon
Railroad ; but Lee brought his supplies in wagons round
that portion held by Grant. Late in the year this was
stopped by the destruction of some twenty miles of the
road. Here Grant was himself stopped for the time.
Lee had so taken advantage of every defensive position
that Grant could not reach the nearer of the other two
railroads without an advance of fifteen miles, or the
further one without a circuit of about forty miles. The
two armies remained locked until the following spring.
Grant, however, was operating still more successfully else-
where through Sherman.
297. Sherman (§ 295) had moved on the same day as
Grant (May 5). Johnston's retreat was skilfully con-
johnston's re- ductcd ; cvcry positiou was held to the last
treat. momcnt ; and it was not until the middle of
July that Sherman had forced him back to his strongest
lines of defence — those around Atlanta. The Confed-
erate forces could not retreat much beyond Atlanta, for
the great central table-land here begins to fall into
the plains which stretch to the Atlantic. Sherman had
THE CIVIL WAR. 239
now been brought so far from his base that the two
armies were much more nearly on an equality than in
May ; and Johnston was preparing for the decisive battle
when Davis made Sherman's way clear. A feature in
Davis's conduct of the war had been his extraordinary
tendency to favoritism. He had been forced to take
Johnston as commander in Georgia; and the wide-
spread alarm caused by Johnston's inexplicable per-
sistence in retreating gave him the excuse he desired.
He removed Johnston (July 17), naming Hood, a
"fighting general," as his successor. Before the end
of the month Hood had made three furious attacks on
Sherman and been beaten in all of them. Moving
around Atlanta, as Grant was doing around
Petersburg, Sherman cut the supplying rail-
roads, and at last was able to telegra]3h to Washington
(September 2), "Atlanta is ours, and fairly won."
298. Hood, by the direct command of Davis, then,
adopted a course which led to the downfall of the Con-
federacy in the following spring. Moving
from between Sherman and the open coun-
try, he set out for Tennessee, expecting to draw Sher-
man after him. Sherman sent Thomas to Nashville,
called out the resources of the north-west to support
him, and left Hood to his march and his fate. Hood
reached Nashville ; but in the middle of December
Thomas burst out upon him, routed his army, and pur-
sued it so vigorously that it never again reunited. One
of the two great armies of the Confederacy had dis-
appeared ; and Sherman, with one of the finest armies of
the war, an army of 60,000 picked veteran troops, stood
on the edge of the Georgia mountains, without an organ-
ized force between him and the back of Lee's army in
Virginia.
240 THE UNITED STATES.
299. In the meantime the presidential election of
1864 had taken place, resulting in the re-election of Lin-
coln, with Andrew Johnson as Vice-President.
The Democratic convention had declared that,
after four years of failure to restore the Union by war,
during which the Constitution had been violated in all
its parts under the plea of military necessity, a cessa-
tion of hostilities ought to be obtained, and had nomi-
nated McClellan and Pendleton. Farragut's victory in
Mobile Bay (August 5), by which he sealed up the last
port, except Wilmington, of the blockade-runners, and
the evidently staggering condition of the Confederate
resistance in the east and the west, were the sharpest
commentaries on the Democratic platform ; and its can-
Admission of didates carried only three of the twenty-
Nevada. £yQ States which took part in the election.
The thirty-sixth State — Nevada — had been admitted in
1864.
300. Sherman began (November 16, 1864) the exe-
cution of his own plan, — to " send back his wounded,
Sherman's march ™^^® a wreck of the railroad, and, with his
through Georgia effcctivc army, move through Georgia, smash-
^ ^ '"^ ■ ing things to the sea." He had been drawing
supplies from a point 500 miles distant, over a single rail-
road. He now destroyed the railroad and the telegraph,
cut off his communication with the north, and moved
towards the Atlantic coast. The sea was reached on
December 12, and Savannah was taken on the twentieth.
He had threatened so many points, and kept the enemy
in so much doubt as to his objects, that there had hardly
been men enough in his front at any one time to make a
skirmish line. On January 15, 1865, the army moved
north from Savannah, through Columbia, to Fayette ville,
THE CIVIL WAR. 241
N.C. The inarch had forced the evacuation of Charleston
and the other coast cities, and their garrisons had been put
by Davis under command of Johnston as a last hope.
Wilmington, which had been captured by a land and sea
force on the day when Sherman left Savannah, was an
opening for communication with Washington; and it
would have been possible for Sherman, with Wilmington
as a base, to crush Johnston at once. All that he cared
to do was to hold Johnston where he was while Grant
should begin his final attack on Lee.
301. During the opening days of March, 1865, Sheridan,
with a body of cavalry, moved from the Shenandoah
valley along the James river to a junction with Grant
(§ 296). On the way he had ruined the canal and railroad
communication directly west from Eichmond, and had
reduced Lee to dependence on the two railroads running
south-west. Grant resumed his attempts to work his
lines further round to the south of Petersburg ; and, with
each successful advance, Lee was compelled to lengthen
his thin line of men. Sheridan was put in command on
the extreme left ; he pushed forward to Five
Forks, destroyed the Southside Eailroad
(April 1), and held his ground. Giving Lee time to
lengthen his line to meet this new danger, Grant gave
the signal for a general advance the next day. It was
successful everywhere ; Petersburg was taken, and Eich-
mond the next day ; Davis and the other political leaders
fled to North Carolina ; and Lee retreated westward, hoi>
ing to join Johnston. The pursuit was too
hot, and he surrendered (April 9). All the ""^" ^^°
terms of surrender named by Grant were generous : no
private property was to be surrendered ; the men were
even to retain their horses, "because they would need
242 THE UNITED STATES.
them for the spring ploughing and farm-work " ; and both
officers and men were to be dismissed on parole, not to be
disturbed by the United States Government so long as
they preserved their parole and did not violate the laws.
It should be stated, also, to Grant's honor that, when the
politicians afterwards undertook to repudiate some of
the terms of surrender, he personally intervened and
used the power of his own name to force an exact fulfil-
Surrenderof nicut. Joliustou Surrendered on much the
Johnston, same terms (April 26), after an unsuccessful
effort at a broader settlement. All organized resistance
had now ceased ; Union cavalry were ranging the south,
picking up Government property or arresting leaders ; but
it was not until May that the last detached parties of
Confederates, particularly beyond the Mississippi, gave
up the contest.
302. Just after Lee's surrender President Lincoln
died by assassination (April 15), the theatrical crime of
a half-crazed enthusiast. Even this event
Death o '"^o"-j^|^^ ^^^^ iuipcl thc Amcricau peoj)le to any
vindictive use of their success for the punishment of
individuals. In the heat of the war, in 1862, Congress
had so changed the criminal law that the punishment of
treason and rebellion should no longer be death alone,
but death or fine and imprisonment. Even this modified
punishment was not inflicted. There was no hanging
for treason ; some of the leaders were imprisoned for a
time, but were never brought to trial. The leader and
President of the Confederate States is living (1889)
quietly at his home in Mississippi ; and the Vice-Presi-
dent, before his death, had returned to the Congress of
the United States as an efficient and respected member.
303. The armies of the Confederacy are supposed to
THE CIVIL WAR. 243
have been at their strongest (700,000) at the beginning
of 1863 ; and it is doubtful whether they con- j^^ opposing
tained 200,000 men in March, 1865. The dis- ^'•""'^^•
satisfaction of the southern people at the manner in
which Davis had managed the war seems to have been
profound ; and it was only converted into hero-worship
by the ill-advised action of the Federal Government in
arresting and imprisoning him. Desertion had become
so common in 1864, and the attempts of the Confederate
Government to force the people into the ranks had be-
come so arbitrary, that the bottom of the Confederacy,
the democratic elements which had given it all the suc-
cess it had ever obtained, had dropped out of it before
Sherman moved northward from Savannah; in some
parts the people had really taken up arms against the
conscripting officers. On the contrary, the numbers of
the Federal armies increased steadily until March, 1865,
when there were a few hundreds over a million. As
soon as organized resistance ceased, the disbanding of
the men began; they were sent home at the rate of
about 300,000 a month, about 50,000 being retained in
service as a standing army. The debt reached
its maximum August 31, 1865, amounting to
$2,845,907,626.56. Some $800,000,000 of revenue had
also been spent mainly on the war ; States, cities, coun-
ties, and towns had spent their own taxation and accu-
mulated their own debts for war purposes ; the payments
for pensions will probably amount to $1,500,000,000 in
the end ; the expenses of the Confederacy can never be
known; the property destroyed by the Federal armies
and by Confederate armies can hardly be estimated;
and the money value ($2,000,000,000) of the slaves
in the south was wiped out by the war. Altogether
244 THE UNITED STATES.
while the cost of the war cannot be exactly calculated,
$8,000,000,000 is a moderate estimate.
304. In return for such an expenditure, and the death
of probably 300,000 men on each side, the abiding gain
Results of the ^as incalculablc. The rich section, which
w^^- had been kept back in the general develop-
ment by a single institution, and had been a clog on the
advance of the whole country, had been dragged up to a
level with the rest of the country. Free labor was soon
to show itself far superior to slave labor in the south ;
and the south was to reap the largest material gain from
the destruction of the Civil War (§ 314). The per-
sistent policy of paying the debt hnmediately resulted
in the higher taxation falling on the richer north and
west; and the new wealth of the south will forever
escape the severe taxation which the other sections have
been compelled to feel. As a result of the struggle the
moral stigma of slavery was removed. The power of
the nation, never before asserted openly, had made a
place for itself; and yet the continuing power of the
States saved the national power from a development into
centralized tyranny. And the new power of the nation,
guaranteeing the restriction of government to a single
nation in central North America, gave security against
any introduction of international relations, international
armament, international wars, and continual war tax-
ation into the territory occupied by the United States.
An approach for four years to the international policy
of Europe had given security against its future necessity.
Finally, democracy in America had certainly shown its
ability to maintain the unity of its empire.
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 245
XI.
THE EECONSTRUCTED NATION.
1865-87.
305. The Federal Government had begun the war with
an honest expression of its determination not to interfere
with slavery ; the progress of the war had jhe isth
forced it into passing the 13th amendment amendment.
in 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States for-
ever. In much the same way circumstances were driv-
ing it into interference with what had always been re-
garded as the rights of the States. In the latter case
the process was certain to find an obstacle in Lincoln's
successor, Johnson. He had been elected, like „
' ^ ' Pres. Johnson
Tyler, to the comparatively unimportant office and the Repub-
of Vice-President in order to gain the votes ""^^ ''^^^'
of War Democrats ; and now the dominant party found
itself with a President opposed to its fundamental views
of the powers of the Federal Government. The case was
worse for Johnson, since the war had built up a new
party. Until 1861 the Republican party had been a mix-
ture of a strong Whig element and a weak Democratic
element ; now it was a real party, and demanded com-
plete loyalty from its leaders, not skilful compromises
between its two elements. Just as in the cases of Sew-
ard, Sumner, Trumbull, and very many of its original
leaders, the party was now ready to repudiate its leaders
if they did not come up to its ideas.
246 THE UNITED STATES.
306. The universal idea in 1861 had been that the
States were to be forced to return with all their rights un-
Presidentiai re- impaired. TMs original notion was seriously
construction, limited by the Emancipation Proclamation
of 1862-63 ; as soon as the President opened a door, by
demanding a recognition of the abolition of slavery as
a condition precedent to the return of a State, the way
was just as open for the imposition of whatever con-
ditions Congress as well should think essential to an
abiding peace. But Congress was not called to face the
difficulty for some time. President Lincoln went on to
reorganize civil government in Virginia, Tennessee, Ar-
kansas, and Louisiana, by giving amnesty to such voters
as would swear to support the Government of the United
States and the abolition of slavery, and recognizing the
State officers elected by such voters. When Johnson
succeeded to the presidency in April, 1865, he had a clear
field before him, for Congress was not to meet until De-
cember. Before that time he had reorganized the gov-
ernments of the seceding States ; they had passed the
13th amendment (§ 125) ; and they were ready to apply
for readmission to Congress. Tennessee was readmitted
in 1866 by Congress ; but the other seceding States were
refused recognition for a time.
307. It was not possible that slave-owners should pass
at one step from the position of absolute masters to that
of political equality with their late slaves. Their State
legislation assumed at once a very paternal character.
Every means was taken, in the passage of contract and
vagrant laws, and enactments of that nature, to force the
f reedmen to work ; and the legislation seemed to the
northern people a re-establishment of slavery under a
new name. Johnson had a very unhappy disposition for
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 247
such a state of affairs ; he had strong convictions, great
stubbornness, and a hasty, almost reckless, ^^^^^^, ^^^^^^^
habit of speech. As soon as it became clear Congress and the
that Congress did not intend to readmit the
Southern States at once he began (February, 1866) to
denounce Congress in public speeches as "no Congress"
so long as it consisted of representatives from but part
of the States. The quarrel grew rapidly more bitter;
the Congressional elections of 1866 made it certain that
the Eepublicans would have a two-thirds majority in
both houses through the rest of Johnson's term of ofiS.ce ;
and the majority passed over the veto (§ 113) every bill
which Johnson vetoed. Thus were passed the Freedmen's
Bureau Bill (1866) for the protection of the Admission of
emancipated negroes, the Act for the admis- Nebraska.
sion of Nebraska, with equal suffrage for blacks and
whites (1867), the Tenure of Office Bill making the
assent of the senate necessary to removals, which had
always been regarded as within the absolute power of
the President (1867), and the Beconstruction Acts (1867).
The increasing bitterness of the quarrel be- impeachment of
tween the President and the majority in Con- ^^^ President,
gress led to the impeachment of the President in 1868
for removing Stanton, the secretary of war, without the
assent of the senate ; but on trial by the senate a two-
thirds majority for conviction could not be obtained, and
Johnson served out his term.
308. The Beconstruction Acts divided the seceding
States into military districts, each under command of a
general officer, who was to leave to the State Govern-
ments then in existence such powers as he should not
consider to be used to deprive the negroes of their rights.
The State Governments of the seceding States were to
248 THE UNITED STATES.
be considered provisional only, until conventions, elected
without the exclusion of the negroes, but with the exclu-
sion of the leading Confederates, should form new or
" reconstructed '' State Governments, on a basis of man-
hood suffrage, and their legislatures should ratify the
The i4th 14th amendment to the Constitution (§ 125).
amendment. xMs amendment, passed by Congress in 1866^
was in five sections, but had three main divisions.
(1) All persons born or naturalized in the United States
were declared citizens of the United States and of their
States, and the States were forbidden to abridge the
" privileges or immunities " of such citizens. This was
to override the Dred Scott decision (§ 249). (2) The
representation of the States in Congress was to be re-
duced in proportion to the number of persons whom they
should exclude from the elective franchise. This was to
induce the States to adopt negro suffrage. On the other
hand, specified classes of Confederate office-holders were
excluded from office until Congress should remove their
disabilities. (3) The war debts of the Confederacy and
the seceding States were declared void forever, and the
war debt of the United States was guaranteed. Con-
gress was given power to enforce all these provisions by
" appropriate legislation."
309. The presidential election of 1868 sealed the pro-
cess of reconstruction. The Democrats opposed it, and
nominated Seymour and Blair ; the Republi-
' cans endorsed it, and nominated Grant and
Colfax. Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas were the only
States of the late Confederacy which were excluded from
this election ; all the rest had been reconstructed, and re-
admitted by Congress in June, 1868 ; and the Eepublican
candidates carried twenty-six of the thirty-four voting
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 249
States, and were elected. The legislatures of tlie recon-
structed States, representing mainly the negroes freed by
the war, were devoted supporters of the new order of
things ; and their ratifications secured the necessary three-
fourths of the States to make the 14th amendment a part
of the Constitution (1868). Congress went on to propose a
15th amendment, forbidding the United States, jhe isth
or any State, to limit or take away the right amendment.
of suffrage by reason of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude. This was ratified by the necessary number
of States and became a part of the Constitution (1870).
Eatification of it was imposed as an additional condition
on Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas, which had rejected the
original terms of readmission. They accepted it, and were
readmitted (1870) . It was not until January 30, 1871, that
all the States were once more represented in Congress.
310. The foreign affairs of the United States during
this period took on a new appearance. The country's
promptness in disarming at the end of the war put it
under no disadvantage in dealing with other nations ;
power and pacific intentions were united in the act. The
successful completion of the Atlantic cable (1866) gave
a celerity and directness to diplomacy which was well
suited to American methods. The tone of American
complaint at the continued presence of French soldiers in
Mexico grew more emphatic as the success of
the war became assured ; and, at the end of
the war, significant movements of troops to the Mexican
frontier led the French emperor to withdraw his support
of Maximilian. Alaska was purchased from Alaska. Treaty
Eussia in 1867. The treaty of Washington °f^^'^'"^°" ■
(1871) provided for the settlement by arbitration of the
"Alabama'' disputes, of the north-western boundary,
250 THE UNITED STATES.
and of the claims of Canada for damages for use of
the shore by American fishermen. The capture by
a Spanish man-of-war of the "Virginius,"
ca'sl'"'^^ a vessel claiming American nationality, and
The Chinese. ^^^ cxecution of a part of her crew (1873),
threatened to interrupt friendly relations with
Spain; but the rupture was averted by proof that the
vessel's papers were false. Chinese immigration had
grown largely on the Pacific coast. There were riotous
attacks on the Chinese by worthless white men; and
many others did not feel that they were a desirable
political addition to the population of the United States.
A treaty with China was obtained (1880), by which the
limitation of Chinese immigration was allowed.^ So, also,
the raising of money in the United States to
ynami ers. ^^^^^^ ^^^^ dcstructiou of private and public
buildings in England by some of the more desperate of
the Irish people (1885) gave England reason for discon-
tent. But the American Government had no power in
the premises. The matter was under the exclusive juris-
diction of the State Governments ; and, as soon as these
began to apply the common law to the case, the " dyna-
mite subscriptions" disappeared. Further difficulties
made their appearance as to the Canadian fisheries (1886-
The Canadian 87). Whcu American fishing-vessels bought
fisheries. ^^g Qp j^rj^j^ \j^ Canadian ports, the Canadian
Government seized and condemned them, on the ground
that such purchases were acts "preparatory to fishing
in Canadian waters." Retaliatory measures were sug-
1 After rigorous legislation in 1882 and 1S84 by Congress under the
provisions of this treaty, the expected ratification by China of a new
treaty that had been long negotiating fell through in 1888, and Congress
passed a law absolutely prohibiting the immigration of Chinese laborers.
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 251
gested, but no full retaliatory system has been adopted,
nor has the dispute yet been settled.
311. The prosperity of the United States knew no
cessation. It had been found that gold was not confined
to California. In 1858 it had been discovered
in Colorado, at Pike's Peak. It has since been
found in most of the Pacific States and Terri-
tories. Silver, a metal hardly known hitherto in the
United States, was discovered in Nevada (1858) ; and
this metal also has been found to be widely
scattered over the Pacific coast. Petroleum
was found in north-western Pennsylvania (1859), and
the enormous drain of this oil from the earth still con-
tinues without apparently affecting the reser-
voir. The coal-fields of the country began to
be understood clearly. Taylor, in 1848, thought that the
coal-area of the United States amounted to 133,000 square
miles ; it was estimated in 1883 at over 200,000
square miles. Natural gas has since come
. . T , T t , ' o Manufactures.
into use, and has made production of many
kinds cleaner, more effective, and cheaper. Manufactures
and every variety of production have increased with
cumulative rapidity. In 1860 the largest flouring-mill
in the United States was in Oswego, N. Y., the next two
in Richmond, Ya., and the fourth in New York city;
and the capacity of the largest was only 300,000 barrels
a year. In 1887 the flour production of Minneapolis,
almost unknown in 1860, is 100,000 barrels a week or
5,000,000 barrels a year. The absolute free trade which
prevails between the States has resulted m a constant
shifting of centres of production, a natural arrival at the
best conditions of production, and an increasing develop-
ment. Mulhall, perhaps safer as a foreign authority,
252 THE UNITED STATES.
gives the total manufactures of the United States as
£682,000,000 in 1870 and £888,000,000 in 1880, Great
Britain coming next with £642,000,000 in 1870 and
£758,000,000 in 1880. He estimates the accumulated
wealth of Great Britain at £8,310,000,000 in
Wpalth
1870 and £8,960,000,000 in 1880, an increase
of £650,000,000 ; and that of the United States at £6,320,-
000,000 in 1870 and £7,880,000,000 in 1880, an increase
of £1,560,000,000. If he had followed the American
census returns his value for 1880 would have been twenty-
five per cent, larger. In 1870 the United States stood
third in wealth ; in 1880 they had passed France in the
race, and stood at least second. The country whose pop-
ulation has been developed within 280 years does already
one-third of the world's mining, one-fourth of its manu-
facturing, and one-fifth of its agriculture ; and at least one-
sixth of the world's wealth is already concentrated in the
strip of territory in central North America which is the
home of the United States.
312. Of the 290,000 miles of railroad in the world,
probably 135,000 are in the United States. Of the
600,000 miles of telegraph lines, more than a
ai ways. £q^j,|.]^ ^^.^ ^^ ^^q United States ; and the
American telephone lines are probably still longer in the
aggregate. The new development of the American rail-
ways began in 1869, when Yanderbilt consolidated the
Hudson Eiver and New York Central Railroads and
formed a trunk line to the west. It was undoubtedly
hastened by the completion of the Central Pacific line in
that year, and it has resulted in a universal tendency to
consolidation of railways and the evolution of " systems,"
under combined managements (§ 273). The coincident
introduction of Bessemer steel rails, the steady increase
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 253
of weight carried by trains, and concentrated competition
have reduced railway freight rates through the whole
of this period. The average rates per ton per mile were
1.7 cents in New York in 1870, and 0.8 in 1880; 2.4 cents
in Ohio in 1870, and 0.9 in 1880. The persistent effects
of such a process on the industries of so large a country
can hardly be described.
313. The extraordinary stimulus given to a new terri-
tory, if it has any basis for production, by the introduc-
tion of a new railway, is also quite beyond Railways in the
description. Most of the western railways ^®^^-
have had to build up their own traffic ; the railway has
been built, and the sales of lands have afterward brought
into existence the towns and even States which are to
support it. Nebraska was described in the Government
reports of 1854 as a desert country, hopelessly unfitted
for agriculture, and the maps of the time put it down as
a part of the " Great American Desert." It is now one
of the leading agricultural States of the Union, with a
population of a million ; and Dakota is waiting only for
the legal form of admission^ to become a State. The
profits of railway construction, the opportunities for
skilful management in the development of territory, and
the spice of gambling which permeated the whole were
great temptations to Americans to embark in the busi-
ness. The miles of railway constructed per annum,
which had been from 1000 to 3000 (averaging about
1500 miles) for the period 1859-68, rose to 4615 miles
in 1869, to 6070 miles in 1870, and to 7379 miles in 1871.
Masses of laborers were brought into situations from
which they could not easily escape ; and masses of capi-
1 See notes, pp. 58 and 96.
254 THE UNITED STATES.
tal were locked up in railways which were finally unpro-
ductive, and resulted only in total loss. The result was
Financial ^lic financial crisis of 1873, from which the
crisis of 1873. couutry has hardly yet fully recovered.
314. For the first time in the history of the United
States, the south has taken a normal part in all this
Progress of the development (§ 304), though it was not until
south. about 1885 that southern progress was fully
understood by the rest of the country. Staggering under
a load of poverty and discouragement which might have
appalled any people, with the addition of social problems
which no other country has solved with any great satis-
faction, the southern people began to feel for the first
time the healthy atmosphere of free labor. The former
slave is a free laborer, and the white man has gone to
work ; white labor produced ten per cent, of the cotton
crop of 1860 and fifty-five per cent, of that of 1886.
The last eighteen slave-labor crops of cotton amounted
to 51,000,000 bales ; the first eighteen free-labor crops
amounted to 75,000,000 bales. And the latter figures
are deceptive from the fact that, in their period, the
south had turned a large percentage of its labor and
capital into industries which had not been possible, only
longed for, under the slave system. Cotton-seeds were
waste under slavery : 600,000 tons of them were crushed
in 1886, giving an entirely new production of $12,000,000
per annum of cotton-seed oil. Southern railways, which
had made but a meagre comparison with those of the
north and west in 1860, began to assume something of
the network appearance of the latter ; they too began to
concentrate into " systems," to reduce rates and improve
service, and to develop new territory. Southern manu-
factures began to affect northern markets; cotton-mills
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 255
in the south began to reap the advantages of their
immediate contiguity to their raw material. Pennsyl-
vania iron-masters were startled as their product was
undersold in the Philadelphia markets by southern iron ;
and the great mineral fields of Tennessee and northern
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, over which Sherman's
and Hood's men had so lately been tramping and fighting,
were brought into notice and development. Wonderful
as the general progress of the United States has been
during this period, the share of the new south under free
labor has been one of the most remarkable phases in it.
315. The population rose from 31,443,321 in 1860 to
38,558,371 in 1870, and 50,155,783 in 1880. At the
normal rate of increase up to 1860 — one- increase of pop-
third for each ten years — the increase from "lation.
1860 to 1870 should have been about ten and a half
millions, instead of seven millions. The difference repre-
sents the physical influences of the civil war. This
influence was shown most plainly in the Southern States,
notably in South Carolina and Alabama, which had
hardly any increase, and a real decrease in adult males.
It should also be noticed that natural checks on the
increase of population are plainly perceptible in the
Atlantic States in 1880, and were probably in operation,
to a less extent, in 1860-70, though they were made in-
distinguishable by the war. The increase in 1870-80 at
the former normal rate should have been a little over a
million more than it was. The tendency will be more evi-
dent in future, but it ought to be allowed for in 1860-70.
316. The material prosperity of the country brought
its own disadvantages. The sudden development of
wealth gave the country for the first time a distinct
wealthy class, not engaged in production of any kind,
256 TRE UNITED STATES.
and very often having none of the characteristics of the
people who are the real strength of the country. The
inevitable extravagance of Government man-
The era of °
speculation and agcment, aggravated by a period of civil war,
corruption. ^\^q^ ^j^g pcoplc wcrc disposcd to excusc
almost any error of detail for which good motives could
be shown, had its reflex influence on the people, as well
as on the Governments of the nation, the States, and
the cities. An era of legal tender paper currency (§ 272),
legally unvarying in value, but showing its effects in the
constant shiftings of price in every other thing, brought
uncertainty as to every article, price, and transaction.
The people had learned that "unhappy lesson — that
there is an easier way to make a dollar than by working
for it " ; and it was not long before speculation among
the people called out its correlative of dishonesty among
Government officials. Money was lavished on the navy ;
in expenditures on that branch of the service the United
States stood third or fourth among the nations, while the
effective results were discouraging. " Eings "
'"^^' of politicians obtained control of the larger
cities. The " Tweed ring " in New York city was over-
thrown in 1872 ; but New York was not the only city of
corruption : Philadelphia, Chicago, and almost every city
large enough to have fat opportunities for fraud and to
deprive universal suffrage of the general acquaintance
of neighbors, each fell under control of its " ring," and
was plundered without mercy. Corruption even attacked
the judiciary ; for the first time American judges were
found who were willing to prostitute their positions, and
the members of the " Erie ring " were able to hold their
ill-gotten railroads because they owned the necessary
judges. A "whiskey ring" of distillers and Govern-
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 257
ment employees (1874) assumed national proportions,
and robbed the Government of a large percentage of
its internal taxation on spirits. The "star
routes," in which the contracts for mail trans-
portation were altered at the discretion of the contractor
and the Government after the competition for the con-
tracts had been decided, gave rise to as great scandals
through the connivance of Government agents with dis-
honest contractors. No one wno lived in this period
will wonder at the pessimistic tone of the public speeches
which marked the hundredth year of the republic (1876) .
317. The republic had life and vigor in it, and its
people showed no disposition to despair before the mass
of corruption which confronted them. The newspapers
attacked the star-route contractors, and drove the Govern-
ment into an attack upon the ring, which broke it up.
The efforts of private individuals, backed by newspapers,
broke up the Tweed ring, banished or imprisoned its
members, expelled the corrupt judges from the bench,
and carried destruction into the widespread whiskey ring.
Local rings were attacked in city after city, were broken
up and revived again, but always found the struggle for
existence more and more desperate. The people have
shown themselves almost vindictive in driving out of
public life any who have been proved dishonest : when
the "Credit Mobilier," the construction com- -credit
pany of the Central Pacific Eailroad, was Mobiiier."
shown to have bribed or influenced members of Congress
to vote for it, there is ground for believing that the pun-
ishment was distributed more widely than justice de-
manded ; and it has come to be recognized as a decided
disadvantage for a public man to be known as shrewd
rather than honest.
258 THE UNITED STATES.
318. The completion of reconstruction in 1870, and the
adoption of the 15th amendment (§ 125), made negro
The reconstruct- Suffrage the law of the land, even in the South-
ed Government, g^j^ Statcs. Tlic southcm whitcs wcrc the
tax-payers ; the negroes were the majority ; and the
negro legislatures proved hopelessly corrupt. In one or
two States the whites recovered control of their States by
hiring their negroes to remain at home on election day,
or by threatening them with discharge for voting. Fail-
ing in this line of action in other States, the whites fell
into a steady tendency towards violence. A widespread
" Ku-Kiux- secret society, the " Ku-Klux-Klan," beginning
Kian." with the effort to overawe the negro popula-
tion by whipping and arson, was rapidly driven into
political murders. The reconstructed Governments re-
sisted as best they could. They tried to use the force of
the State against the offenders ; but the best part of the
force of the State was the white element, which was most
deeply involved in the resistance to the legal Government.
On the application of the legislature of a State, or of the
governor if the legislature cannot be summoned, the
President may send Federal troops to suppress rebellion
(§ 125). The reconstructed Governments called on Pres-
ident Grant for such aid, and received it. But the whites
were the stronger race, struggling for property, and know-
ing well the letter of the law. They refused to resist the
smallest atom of Pederal authority : a large force of them,
mainly old Confederates and excellent fighting men, who
had seized the city of New Orleans and overturned the
reconstructed Government (1874), retired quietly before a
detachment of United States troops, and allowed the State
Government to be restored. The little United States army
in the south was kept busy. Wherever it appeared, resist-
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 259
ance ceased at once, breaking out at the same time else-
where. The whites had to gain but a single victory; as
soon as they secured a majority in a State legislature they
so arranged the election laws and machinery that a negro
majority was thenceforth impossible. The legislatures
and governors, with nearly all the local officers, were then
Democrats : calls for Federal troops ceased at once ; and
the Eepublicans of the north, the dominant party of the
nation, were reduced to the necessity of seeing their
southern vote disappear, without the ability to do any-
thing to check the process. As the election of 1876 drew
near, the reconstructed Governments of all the seceding
States, except Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana, had
become Democratic.
319. Congress, which was controlled by the Republi-
cans, had not been idle. The Civil Eights Act (1870)
provided that fines and damages should be
imposed for any attempt to violate or evade
the 15th amendment or for conspiracy to deprive the
negroes of the right of suffrage. The Election Act
(1870) exercised for the first time the right
to alter or amend State laws as to Federal
elections which the Constitution had given to Congress,
This was strengthened by another Act in the following year.
The Force Act (1871) went farther than the
instincts of the American people could follow
Congress. It provided that any conspiracy or combina-
tion strong enough to deprive the negroes of the bene-
fits of the 14th amendment should be evidence of a " de-
nial by the State of the equal protection of the laws " to
all its citizens ; that the President should be empowered
to use the army, navy, and militia to suppress such com-
binations ; that, when any combination should Lippear in
260 THE UNITED STATES.
arms, the act should be a rebellion against the United
States ; and that, in such case, the President should have
power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in the rebel-
lious Territory (§ 305).
320. It was plain that the southern whites meant to
govern their States with little present regard to the last
two amendments, and that it was impossible to defeat
their purpose without cutting up the State system in the
south by the roots. Even in 1872 a strong element of
the Republican party thought that the party policy had
gone too near the latter course. It held a convention of
Liberal Repub- its owu, uuder the name of the Liberal Eepub-
lican party, ijcau party, and nominated Greeley and Brown.
The Democratic party, anxious to save local government
and State rights in the south, but completely discredited
by its opposition to the war, accepted the Liberal Repub-
lican platform and nominations. Its action was in one
sense a failure ; Greeley had been one of the bitterest and
angriest critics of the Democratic party, and so many of
the Democrats refused to vote for him that his defeat
was hardly ever doubtful. The Republicans
■ renominated Grant, with Henry Wilson for
Vice-President ; and they received the votes of 286 of the
349 electors, and were elected. The action of the Demo-
cratic party in adopting the Liberal Republican platform,
and thus tacitly abandoning its opposition to reconstruc-
tion, brought it back into the lines of political conflict
and made it a viable party.
321. The election of 1876 was the first really con-
tested election since 1860. The Democrats nominated
Tilden and Hendricks, and the Republicans
Hayes and Wheeler. The platforms showed
no distinct grounds of party struggle, except that of
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 261
the ins and the outs. The election turned on the votes
of the Southern States in which the reconstructed Gov-
ernments still held their own or claimed to do so ;
and the extra-constitutional device of an electoral com-
mission resulted in a decision in favor of Hayes and
Wheeler. As a part of the result, some arrangement had
been made for the settlement of the southern difficulties,
for Grant immediately withdrew the troops from Florida,
South Carolina, and Louisiana, and the reconstructed
Governments of those States surrendered without a
struggle. All the Southern States were now Democratic ;
the negroes had every right but that of voting ; and even
this was permitted to a sufficient extent to throw a veil
over the well-understood general state of affairs. Colo-
rado, the thirty-eighth State (and the last up Admission of
to 1887), was admitted in 1876 and took part Colorado.
in this election.
322. The Hayes administration was a welcome period
of calm. The main subject of public interest was mone-
tary, and much of it was due to the change of conditions
during and since the war. In order to sell bonds during
the war it had been necessary, not only to make the
interest very high (in some cases seven and three-tenths
per cent.), but to sell them for the Government's own
depreciated paper. The Act of 1869, to restore the pub-
lic credit, pledged the faith of the United States that
the bonds should be paid in coin. This had seemed very
inequitable to some, but was acquiesced in. When the
price of silver had fallen, in July, 1876, to 94 Demonetization
cents, a ratio for gold and silver of 20 : 1, and °^ ^''^®''-
it was found that an Act of 1873 had dropped the silver
dollar from the coinage, the people jumped to the conclur
sion that this was a trick of the bondholders to secure a
262 THE UNITED STATES.
further advantage in the payment of their bonds in the
more valuable metal only. It was useless to urge that
for forty years before 1873 the silver dollar had been
token money, and that its average coinage had been
only about $150,000 a year ; the current was too strong
to be resisted, and Congress passed (1878) an Act to
restore the silver dollar to the coinage, to compel the
coinage of at least $2,000,000 in silver per month, and to
make the silver dollar legal tender to any amount. The
Act is still (1887) in force, in spite of the recommenda-
tions of successive Presidents and Secretaries of the
Treasury for its repeal. The operation ot
eun ing. j^gf^^j^j^j^g j^3_(j "been begun under the Act of
July 14, 1870, authorizing the issue of five, four and a
half, and four per cent, bonds, to take the place of those
at higher interest which should be payable. This first
refunding operation was completed in the year of the re-
sumption of specie payments (1879). The issues were
$500,000,000 at five per cent., $185,000,000 at four and
one-half, and $710,345,950 at four, reducing the annual
interest charge from $81,639,684 to $61,738,838. One
secret of the success of the Government and its high
credit was the persistence of the people in urging the
payment of the national debt. The work was begun as
soon as the war was ended j before all the soldiers had
Reduction of ^ccn scut homc $30,000,000 of the debt had
national debt. \)qq^ paid, and hardly a month has passed
since without some reduction of the total amount.
Between 1865 and 1880 the debt fell from $2,850,000,000
to about $2,000,000,000 ; and, as it decreased, the ability
of the Government to borrow at lower interest increased.
About $200,000,000 of six per cent, bonds fell due in
1881, and the Secretary of the Treasury (Windom) took
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 263
the responsibility of allowing the holders of them to
exchange them for three and one-half per cent, bonds,
redeemable at the pleasure of the Government. This
privilege was extended to about $300,000,000 of other
bonds, giving a saving of $10,000,000 interest. The four
and one-half per cent, bonds of 1870-71 ($250,000,000)
are not redeemable until 1891, and the four bonds
($738,000,000) until 1907. Eoughly stated, the whole
debt, deducting cash in the treasury, is under $1,400,-
000,000, about $1,100,000,000 being interest bearing, the
remainder non-interest bearing paper currency of differ-
ent kinds.
323. In 1880 the ."Republicans nominated Garfield and
Arthur, and the Democrats Hancock and English. Again
there was no great distinction between the
party principles advocated. The Democrats,
naturally a free-trade party, were not at all ready to fight
a battle on that issue ; and the Eepublicans, turning the
contest to the point on which their opponents were
divided, succeeded in electing their candidates. They
were inaugurated in 1881 ; and the scramble for office
which had marked each new administration since 1829
followed (§ 202), The power of the senate to confirm
the President's nominations had brought about a practice
by which the appointments m each State were left to
the suggestion of the administration senators from that
State. The senators from New York, feeling aggrieved
at certain appointments in their State, and desiring the
prestige of a re-election by their legislature, resigned.
Unfortunately for them the legislature took them at
their word, and began to ballot for their successors.
Their efforts to be re-elected, the caucuses and charges
of treachery or corruption, and the newspaper comments
264 THE UNITED STATES.
made up a disgraceful scene. In the midst of it a dis-
appointed applicant for office shot the President (July 2),
Assassination of ^^^ ^^ ^^^d two mouths later. Vice-Presi-
Garfieid. ^q^^ Arthur succeeded him (§ 117), and had
an uneventful administration. The death of President
Garfield called general attention to the abominations of
the system under which each party, while in office, had
paid its party expenses by the use of minor offices for
Civil service i^s adhcrcuts. The President's power of ap-
refornn. pointmcnt could uot bc controlled ; but the
Pendleton Act (1883) permitted the President to make
appointments to designated classes of offices on the rec-
ommendation of a board of civil service commissioners.
President Arthur executed the law faithfully, but its
principle could hardly be considered established until it
had been put through the test of a Democratic admin-
istration ; and this consideration undoubtedly
" had its influence on the next election (1884).
The Eepublicans nominated Blaine and Logan, and the
Democrats Cleveland and Hendricks. A small majority
for the Democratic candidates in the State of New York
gave them its electoral votes and decided the election in
their favor. They were inaugurated (1885), and for the
first time in more than fifty years no general change of
office-holders took place. The Pendleton Act was
obeyed ; and its principle was applied to very many of
the offices not legally covered by it. There have been,
however, very many survivals of the old system of
appointment, and each of them has been met by a general
popular disapproval which is the best proof of the change
of public sentiment. At least, both parties are com-
mitted to the principle of civil service reform. There is
a growing desire to increase the number of offices to
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 265
which it is to be applied ; and the principle is making its
way into the administration of States and cities.
324. At home and abroad there is not a clond on the po-
litical future of the United States. The economic condi-
tions are not so flattering ; and there are indications that
a new era of struggle is opening before the country, and
that it must meet even greater difficulties in the imme-
diate future. The seeds of these may perhaps be found
in the way in which the institutions of the country have
met the new economic conditions which came in with the
railway in 1830.
325. Corporations had existed in the United States
before 1830, but the conditions, without the railway or
telegraph, were not such as to give them pro- ^^^ orations
nounced advantages over the individual. All in the united
this was changed under the new regime ; the
corporation soon began to show its superiority. In the
United States at present there are many kinds of busi-
ness in which, if the individual is not very highly
endowed, it is better for him to take service with a cor-
poration. Individual success is growing more rare ; and
even the successful individual is usually succeeded by
a corporation of some sort. In the United States, as
in England, the new era came into a country which had
always been decided in its leanings to individual free-
dom; and the country could see no new departure in
recognizing fully an individual freedom of incorporation
(§ 215). Instead of the old system under Freedom of
which each incorporation was a distinct legis- '"corporation.
lative act, general provisions were rapidly adopted by
the several States, providing forms by which any group
of persons could incorporate themselves for any purpose.
The first Act of the kind was passed in Connecticut in
266 THE UNITED STATES.
1837, and the principle of the English Limited Liability
Act of 1855 was taken directly from it. The change
was first embodied in New York in its constitution of
1846, as follows : " Corporations may be formed under
general laws, but shall not be created by special Act,
except for municipal purposes and in cases where, in the
judgment of the legislature, the objects of the corpora-
tion cannot be attained under general laws.'' The general
laws were for a long time merely directions to the cor-
porators as to the form of the certificate and the place
where it was to be deposited. The New York provision
was only a development of the principle of a statute of
1811 applying to manufacturing, but it is an instance of
what was taking place all over the country.
326. The consequent freedom of corporations was also
influenced by the law, as expounded by the Supreme
" Dartmouth Court of the United States in the " Dartmouth
College case." Collcgc casc '' (1819), whose principle has al-
ways been the object of vigorous but unsuccessful criti-
cism. The States are prohibited by the Constitution
from passing any laws which shall alter the obligation
of contracts. This decision held that a charter was a
contract between the State and the corporation created
by it, and therefore unalterable except by consent of the
corporation. The States were careful thereafter to in-
sert in all charters a clause giving the State the right to
alter the charter; but the decision has tended to give
judges a bias in favor of the corporations in all fairly
doubtful cases. Corporations in the United States thus
grew luxuriantly, guarded by the Constitution, and very
little trenched upon by the States.
327. American corporations have usually been well
managed, and very much of the extraordinary develop-
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 267
ment of the wealth of the United States has been due
to them. But a corporation which holds $400,000,000 of
property, owns more than one State legisla-
, T , , T 1,1 Corporate power.
ture, and has a heavy lien on several others,
is not an easy creature to control or limit. Wars of
rates between rival corporations claiming great stretches
of territory as ^^ their own," into which other corpora-
tions must not intrude, are startling things to any peo-
ple. The rise of a corporation, built upon the ruins
of countless individual business concerns, and showing
that it can reduce railway corporations to an obedience
which they refuse to the State, is too suggestive of
an imperium in imperio to be pleasant to a democracy.
The States, to which the whole subject legiti- inter- state
mately belongs, confess their inability to deal Commerce Act
with it by leaving Congress to pass the Inter-State
Commerce Act (1887), intended to stop the encroach-
ments of railway corporations on individual rights
(§ 106) ; but the success of even this measure is still
quite doubtful.
328. Still more unhappy have been some of the effects
of the new regime on the relations between employers
and employed. The substitution of a corpo- corporations as
ration for an individual as an employer could employers,
not but affect such relations unhappily, at least for a
time; but the freedom and power of the corporate
employers strained the relations farther than was at all
necessary. The first clumsy attempts to control the
corporations, by limiting the percentage of their profits,
led to the artifice of "watering," or unnecessarily in-
creasing their stock. In good years the nominal divi-
dends were thus kept down to an apparently normal
percentage. When bad years, or increasing competition,
268 THE UNITED STATES.
began to cut down the dividends, the managers were
often forced to attack the wages, or increase the duties,
of their employees. The " bad years '' began to be more
numerous and constant after the financial crisis of 1873
had set in ; and the first serious effects appeared in the
" railroad strikes of 1877."
329. For many years past, the drift of population had
been towards an urban life. Taking the town of 8000
Concentration inhabitants as the lower limit of urban popu-
of population, latiou, wc find that 3.3 per cent, of the pop-
ulation was to be classed as urban in 1790, and that the
percentage had risen to 22.5 in 1880. If towns of
4000 inhabitants had been taken as the lower limit, the
urban population in 1880 would have been 13,000,000, or
more than twenty-five per cent. It may be thought that
the policy of protection, of abnormal stimulation of
manufactures, had something to do with this tendency ;
but it is noteworthy that the increase during the gener-
ally free-trade period of 1840-60, from 8.5 to 16.1, was
the greatest of any twenty years, unless we take the
period 1850-70, half free-trade and half protective, when
the percentage rose from 12.5 to 20.9. Whatever may
have been the cause, the tendency is indubitable, and its
effects in increasing the facility of organization among
the employees of corporations, whose fields of operation
are generally urban, are as easily to be seen.
330. Some of the corporations were controlled by men
who were believed, in some cases on the best of evidence,
p^ ^1^^ to have gained their control by the defects of
feeling towards Amcricau corporatiou law, particularly by the
corporatrons. pj-jy^ggg ^f ^\^q majority of stock-holdcrs to
use the whole stock almost at their discretion, even for
the wrecking of the road and its repurchase on terms
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 269
ruinous to the minority's interests. Disrespect for
" property rights " thus acquired was apt to extend to
other corporate property, acquired legitimately; in the
railroad strikes of 1877, there were cases in which
citizens usually law-abiding watched with hardly con-
cealed satisfaction the destruction of such property as
belonged to corporations. Further, the neutral position
of the United States had brought about the transfer
of considerable English and other foreign capital to
the United States to be invested, under corporate privi-
leges, in cattle-ranges or other industries connected with
western agriculture. The American managers of these
corporations, feeling little responsibility to any power
except their foreign employers, permitted themselves to
take liberties with individual settlers and their rights
which arrayed a large part of the agricultural population
of the west against corporate property. Finally, the
differential rates made in private, even secret, contracts,
by railway corporations all over the country, had
gathered up passions of all sorts against the corporate
" monopolies." The anchor of agricultural conservatism,
usually a safe reliance in the United States, had ceased
to be of service in this matter. An order, the " Patrons
of Husbandry," said to number 1,500,000 «. Patrons of
members in 1874, had been formed with the Husbandry."
avowed object of checking the common corporate enemy;
and, though its prominence was short-lived, its influence
remained.
331. The growing power of corporations, and that at a
time when the democracy had just shown its strength
most forcibly and to its own satisfaction ; the Anti-economic
evident tendency of the corporations, espe- influences.
cially in the protected industries and in transportation^
270 THE UNITED STATES.
to further combinations, such as "pools" and "trusts";
the consequent partial disappearance of that competition
which had seemed to be a restriction on the power of the
corporations over the individual ; the power and disposi-
tion of corporations to cut wages down whenever divi-
dends made it necessary to do so ; the half-understood, but
heartily dreaded, weapon known as the "black list," by
which combinations of employers, especially of corpora-
tions, drove employees inclined to "agitation" out of
employment; the general misgivings as to the wisdom
or honesty of the State legislatures, in which the power
over corporations was vested ; the unhappy influences of
the increase of urban population over the jury system ;
the complicated systems of appeals which had grown up in
American law, with their opportunities for delay or per-
version of justice by wealthy and determined corporations ;
the altered character of American labor, which was now
largely made up of a mass of immigration hardly yet
fully digested, and more apt than American labor had
once been to seek help in something else than individual
effort, — all these influences made up a mass pf explosives
which became seriously dangerous after 1880. It was no
longer so easy for the individual to defend himself against
corporate aggression ; if it had been, the American work-
ing man was no longer so apt to trust to an individual
defence; and laborers began to turn to combinations
against corporations, though these combinations were
even more prompt and successful in attacking individual
employers than in attacking corporations.
332. The trade unions, which retained most of the con-
servative influences of their generally benefi-
ciary nature, were not radical enough ; and a
local Philadelphia society, the "Knights of Labor," was
THE RECONSTRUCTED NATION. 271
developed into a national organization, following the
usual American system of local "assemblies/' with del-
egates to State and national conventions, "knights of
With but 52,000 members in 1883, it claimed "-abor."
630,000 in October, 1886, and 1,000,000 at the beginning
of 1887. Its general object was the union of all classes
and kinds of labor into one organization, so that, "an
injury to one being the concern of all," the oppression of
even the humblest and weakest individual might be
answered by the sympathetic action of more important
and, if necessary, of all classes of labor. The
, ,, . , T •! ■. , The " boycott."
"boycott," an imported idea, was its most
successful weapon; the firm or corporation which op-
pressed its employees was to be brought to terms by a
refusal of all members of the national organization to buy
its productions, or to deal with any one who bought or
sold them. Such a scheme was directly subversive of all
social protection or security ; and yet it had gone on for
nearly two years before it came plainly to public notice
(January, 1886) . Boycotts increased in num- Anti-sociai
ber; local assemblies, intoxicated by their results.
sudden success, went beyond the control of the well-
intentioned head of the order ; the passive obedience on
the part of the members, which was a necessary feature
of the system, evolved a class of local dictators, or "rings,"
which were irresponsible as well as tyrannical ; and the
business of the country was very seriously threatened all
through the years 1886 and 1887.
333. Law has begun to pronounce distinctly against
both the black list and the boycott, as well as against the
systems based upon them. There can be no doubt of the
cruel tyranny which the new system of labor organiza-
tion tends to erect not only over its enemies, the class of
272 THE UNITED STATES.
employers and those working men who are not of the
order, but over its own members. But the demonstra-
tion of the illegality and tyranny does not alter the con-
ditions of the problem, of which it is but a single phase.
How are the English common law, its statutory develop-
ment, and its jury system, to exist, when a great mass of
the population is discontented, distrustful, and under the
dominion of a secret public opinion, and when the way
does not seem to be open for a removal of their discon-
tents except by the serious curtailment of the corporate
system which has been so powerful an agent in American
development and wealth ? The great American republic,
then, seems to be entering upon a new era, in
which it must meet and solve a new problem
— the reconciliation of democracy with the modern con-
ditions of production.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 273
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
The works treating of the various phases of the history
of the United States are so numerous that only the
names of the leading authorities can be given: The
histories of the United States by Bancroft (to 1783),
Pitkin (to 1797), Eamsay (to 1814), Hildreth (to 1820),
Bradford (to 1840), Tucker (to 1840), Spencer (to 1857),
Bryant and Gay, Schouler, Von Hoist, Higginson;
M'Master, History of the American People ; Gilman, His-
tory of the American People ; Winsor, Narrative and Crit-
ical History ; Williams, Statesman's Manual; H. H.
Bancroft, History of the Pacific Coast; The American
Commonwealth Series ; Force, Tracts relating to the Colo-
nies and American Archives; Poore, Federal and State
Constitutions; Hazard, Historical Gollectio7is ; Neill, Eng-
lish Colonization in America; Dodge, English Colonies in
America; Doyle, English Colonies in America; Burke,
English Settlements in America; Holmes, Annals of
America; Graham, History of the United States; Marshall,
History of the Colonies; Palfrey, History of New England;
Parkman's Works; Gordon, History of the Independence
of the United States; Winsor, Reader'' s Handbook of the
Revolution ; Carrington, Battles of the Revolution ; Lud-
low, War of American Independence ; Frothingham, Rise
of the Republic; Story, Commentaries ; Chalmers, Annals
of the Colonies, and Revolt of the Colonies; Scott, Consti'
274 THE UNITED STATES.
tutional Liberty in the Colonies; Journals of Congress^
1774-89 5 Annals of Congress, 1789-1824; Register oj
Debates in Congress, 1824-37 ; Congressional Globe, 1833-
72 ; Congressional Record, 1872-87 ; American State
Papers (to 1815); Benton, Abridged Debates of Congress
(to 1850) ; United States Statutes at Large; Revised
Statutes of the United States; Niles, Weekly Register,
1811-36 ; Tribune Almanac, 1838-87 ; Appleton, Annual
Cyclopcedia, 1861-86; Spofford, American Almanac,
1878-87; M'Pherson, Political Manuals ; Greeley, Political
Text-Book, 1860; Cluskey, Political Cyclopcedia, 1860;
Hamilton, Republic of the United States; Renton, Thirty
Years' Vieiv; Young, American Statesman; Johnston,
History of American Politics; Stanwood, History of Pres-
idential Elections ; Porter, Constitutional History ; Story,
Commentaries on the Constitution; Kent, Commentaries
on American Law ; Wharton, Commentaries; Duer, Con-
stitutional Jurisprudence ; Brownson, American Republic;
Mulford, The Nation; The Federalist ; Jameson, Consti-
tutional Convention; "Centz," Republic of Republics;
Tucker, Blackstone^s Commentaries; Curtis, History of
the Constitution ; Bancroft, History of the Constitution;
Elliot, Debates ; Cooley, Constitutional Limitations, Taxou-
tio7i, and Constitutional Law; Sedgwick, Statutory and
Constitutional Law ; Bump, Notes of Constitutional Decis-
ions ; Wilson, Congressional Government; Fiske, Ameri-
can Political Ideas; M'Crary, Election Laws; Eorer, Liter-
State Jjaw ; Lamphere, ^men'caTi Government; Counting
the Electoral Vote, 1787-1876 ; M'Knight, Electoral Sys-
tem; Dillon, Municipal Corporations ; Morse, Citizensltip ;
Lalor, Political Cyclopaedia; Burnet, Settlement of the
North-West Territory^ 1847; Flint, Geography and His-
tory of the Mississippi Valley, 1828 ; Histories of the
BIBLIOGRAPHY. 275
various States ; Bishop, History of American Manufac-
tures; Seybert, Statistical Annals; Pitkin, Statistical
View, 1816 ; De Bow, Industrial Record of the South and
West, 1852 ; Eighty Years' Progress of the United States,
1861 ; Fi7'st Century of the Repuhlic, 1876 ; Compendium
of the Census, for 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880 ; Walker,
Statistical Atlas, 1874 ; Scribner's Statistical Atlas, 1881 ;
Reports of the Bureau of Statistics, 1866-87; Lyman,
Diplomacy of the United States; Trescot, Diplomacy of
the Revolution, and Diplomatic History, 1797-1801;
Baker, Diplomatic History, 1861-65 ; Reports of the Secre-
tary of the Treasury ; Cooper, History of the Navy (to
1853); Emmons, History of the Navy (to 1853) ; Preble,
History of the American Flag ; Rossevelt, Naval History
of the 'War of 1812 ; Boynton, History of the Navy, 1861-
Q>^; Porter, Naval History of the Civil War; Williams,
History of the Negro Race; Wilson, Rise and Fall of the
Slave Power ; Goodell, Slavery and Anti- Slavery ; Hurd,
Law of Freedoin and Bondage; Hammond and others.
The Pro-Slavery Argument; Stephens, War between the
States; Blaine, Twenty Years in Congress; Official Rec-
ords of the Civil War; Rebellion Record; Personal Narra-
tives of Grant, Sherman, McClellan, J. E. Johnston,
Hood, and Beauregard ; Reports of the Committee on the
Conduct of the War ; Scribner, Campaigns of the Civil
War; Battles ayid Leaders of the Civil War ; Comte de
Paris, History of the Civil War in America; Greeley,
American Conflict; Draper, History of the Civil War;
Pollard, Lost Cause; Davis, Rise and Fall of the Coi fed-
erate Government; American State Papers 07i Finance
(to 1828); Bolles, Financial History of the United States;
Sumner, History of American Currency ; Gouge, Paper
Money in the United States; Spalding, Legal Tender
276 THE UNITED STATES.
Paper Money; Knox, United States Notes ; H. C. Adams,
Public Debts; Gibbons, Public Debt of the United States;
Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury ; Wells, Internal
Revenue Commission Report, 1866 ; Taussig, Protection to
Young Industries, and History of the Present Tariff,
1860-83 ; Young, Tariff Legislation of the United States,
1870; Hadley, Railroad Transportation; Poor, Railroad
Manual; Adams, Railroads: their Origin and Problems;
Hudson, Railways and the Republic; Ely, Labor Move-
ment in America; Reports of tlie Bureaus of Statistics of
the various States.
PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS.
217
THE PRESIDENTS AND VICE-PRESIDENTS OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Terms.
Presidents.
Vice-Presidents.
1789-93
1
George WaBhington, Va.
1
John Adams, Mass.
1793-97
George "Washington.
John Adams.
1797-1801
2
John Adams, Mass.
2
Thomas Jefferson, Va.
1801-05
3
Thomas Jefferson, Va.
3.
Aaron Burr, N.Y.
1805-09
Thomas Jefferson.
4
George Cliuton, N.Y.
1809-13
4
James Madison, Va.
George Clinton {d. 1812).
1813-17
James Madison.
5.
Elbridge Gerry, Mass. {d. 1814).
1817-21
5
James Monroe, Va.
6.
Daniel D. Tompkins, N.Y.
1821-25
James Monroe.
Daniel D. Tompkins.
1825-29
6
John Quincy Adams, Mass.
7.
John Caldwell Calhoun, S.C.
1829-33
7.
Andrew Jackson, Tenn.
John C. Calhoun (res. 1832).
1833-37
Andrew Jackson.
8.
Martin Van Buren, N.Y.
1837-41
8.
Martin Van Buren, N.Y.
9.
Richard Mentor Johnson, Ky.
1841-45
9.
10.
William Henry Harrison,
0. (rf. 1841).
John Tyler.
10.
John Tyler, Va.
1845^9
11.
James Knox Polk, Tenn.
11.
George Mifflin Dallas, Pa.
1849-53
12.
13.
Zachary Taylor, La. {d.
1850).
Millard Fillmore.
12.
Millard Fillmore, N.Y.
1853-57
,4.
Franklin Pierce, N.H.
13.
"William Rufus King, Ala.
{,d. 1853).
1857-61
15.
James Buchanan, Pa.
14.
John Cabell Breckinridge, Ky.
1861-65
16.
Abraham Lincoln, 111.
15.
Hannibal Hamlin, Me.
1865-69
17.
Abraham Lincoln {d. 1865) .
Andrew Johnson.
16.
Andrew Johnson, Tenn.
1869-73
18.
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 111.
17.
Schuyler Colfax, Ind.
1873-77
Ulysses S. Grant.
18.
Henry "Wilson, Mass. {d. 1875)
1877-81
19.
Rutherford Birchard Hayes,
0.
James Abram Garfield, 0.
19.
"William Alraon Wheeler, N.Y
1881-85
20.
20.
Chester Allan Arthur, N.Y.
(fZ. 1881).
21.
Chester Allan Arthur.
1885-89
22.
Grover Cleveland, N.Y.
21.
Thomas Andrews Hendricks,
Ind. {d. 1885).
1889-
23.
Benjamin Harrison, Ind.
22.
Levi Parsons Morton, N.Y.
APPENDIX
CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
We the People of the United States, in order to form a more
perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity,
provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare,
and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our pos-
terity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the
United States of America.
ARTICLE I.
Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be
vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist
of a Senate and House of Representatives.
Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed
of members chosen every second year by the people of the sev-
eral States, and the electors in each State shall have the quali-
fications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of
the State Legislature.
No person shall be a Representative who shall not have
attained to the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years
a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected,
be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.
Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among
the several States which may be included within this Union,
according to their respective numbers, which shall be deter-
mined by adding to the whole number of free persons, includ-
ing those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding
Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The actual
enumeration shall be made within three years after the first
meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every
subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by
law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed
one for every thirty thousand, but each State shall have at
least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be
made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose
279
280 APPENDIX
three; Massachusetts eight; Rhode Island and Providence Plan-
tations one; Connecticut five; New York six; New Jersey four;
Pennsylvania eight; Delaware one; Maryland six; Virginia ten;
North Carolina five ; South Carolina five, and Georgia three.
When vacancies happen in the representation from any State,
the Executive Authority thereof shall issue writs of election to
fill such vacancies.
The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and
other officers ; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.
Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be com-
posed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legis-
lature thereof, for six years ; and each Senator shall have one
vote.
Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of
the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be
into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class
shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the
second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and of the
third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third
may be chosen every second year ; and if vacancies happen by
resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the Legislature
of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary
appointments until the next meeting of the Legislature, which
shall then fill such vacancies.
No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to
the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabi-
tant of that State for which he shall be chosen.
The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of
the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally
divided.
The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a
President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or
when he shall exercise the office of President of the United
States.
The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeach-
ments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath
or affirmation. When the President of the United States is
tried, the Chief Justice shall preside ; and no person shall be
convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the mem-
bers present.
Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further
than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and
enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United
States ; but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment,
according to law.
APPENDIX 281
^ Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elec-
tions for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in
each State by the Legislature thereof ; but the Congress may
at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to
the places of choosing Senators.
The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and
such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless
they shall by law appoint a different day.
Section 5. Each House shall be the judge of the elections,
returns and qualifications of its own members, and a ma-
jority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business ; but
a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be
authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in
such manner, and under such penalties as each House may
provide.
Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings,
punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the
concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member.
Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and
from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as
may in their judgment require secrecy ; and the yeas arid nays
of the members of either House on any question shall, at the
desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on the Journal.
Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, with-
out the consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days,
nor to any other place than that in which the two Houses shall
be sitting.
Section 6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive
a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law,
and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall
in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the peace, be
privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of
their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from
the same ; and for any speech or debate in either House, they
shall not be questioned in any other place.
No Senator or Representative shall, during the time for
which he was elected, be appointed to any civil office under
the authority of the United States, which shall have been
created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been in-
creased during such time ; and no person holding any office
under the United States, shall be a member of either House
during his continuance in office.
Section 7. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in
the House of Representatives ; but the Senate may propose or
concur with amendments as on other bills.
Every bill which shall have passed the House of Represent-
atives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be pre-
282 APPENDIX
sented to the President of the United States ; if he approve he
shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections
to that House in which it shall have originated, who shall
enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to
reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two-thirds of that
House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together
with the objections, to the other House, by which it shall like-
wise be reconsidered, and if approved by two-thirds of that
House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes
of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the
names of the persons voting for and against the bill shall be
entered on the journal of each House respectively. If any bill
shall not be returned by the President within ten days (Sun-
days excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the
same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it,
unless the Congress by their adj6urnment prevent its return,
in which case it shall not be a law.
Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of
the Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary
(except on a question of adjournment) shall be presented to the
President of the United States ; and before the same shall
take effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by
him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House
of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations pre-
scribed in the case of a bill.
Section 8. The Congress shall have power to lay and col-
lect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and
provide for the common defence and general welfare of the
United States ; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be
uniform throughout the United States ;
To borrow money on the credit of the United States ;
To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the
several States, and with the Indian tribes ;
To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform
laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United
States ;
To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures ;
To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securi-
ties and current coin of the United States ;
To establish post-offices and post-roads ;
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by secur-
ing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive
right to their respective writings and discoveries ;
To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the
high seas, and offences against the law of nations ;
APPENDIX 283
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and
make rules concerning captures on land and water ;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money
to that use shall be for a longer term than two years ;
To provide and maintain a navy ;
To make rules for the government and regulation of the land
and naval forces ;
To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws
of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions ;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the
militia, and for governing such part of them as may be em-
ployed in the service of the United States, reserving to the
States respectively, the appointment of the oflScers, and the
authority of training the militia according to the discipline pre-
scribed by Congress ;
To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over
such district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by ces-
sion of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, be-
come the seat of the Government of the United States, and to
exercise like authority over all places purchased by the con-
sent of the Legislature of the State in which the same shall be,
for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dry-docks, and
other needful buildings ; — And
To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other
powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the
United States, or in any department or officer thereof.
Section 9. The migration or importation of such persons as
any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall
not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year one thou-
sand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty may be im-
posed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each
person.
The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be sus-
pended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the pub-
lic safety may require it.
No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed.
No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in pro-
portion to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to
be taken.
No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any
State.
No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce
or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another ; nor
shall vessels bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter,
clear, or pay duties in another.
No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in coa-
284 APPEISTDIX
sequence of appropriations made by law ; and a regular state-
ment and account of the receipts and expenditures of all public
money shall be published from time to time.
No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States.
And no person holding any office of profit or trust under them,
shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any pres-
ent, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from
any king, prince, or foreign state.
Section 10. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance,
or confederation ; grant letters of marque and reprisal ; coin
money ; emit bills of credit ; make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender in payment of debts ; pass any bill of at-
tainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the obligation of
contracts, or grant any title of nobility.
No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any
imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be
absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws ; and the
net produce of all duties and imposts, laid by any State on im-
ports or exports, shall be for the use of the Treasury of the
United States ; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision
and control of the Congress.
No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any
duty of tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in'time of peace,
enter into any agreement or compact with another State, or
with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually in-
vaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay.
ARTICLE II.
Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in a Presi-
dent of the United States of America. He shall hold his office
during the term of four years, and, together with the Vice-
President, chosen for the same term, be elected, as follows :
Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives to which the State
may be entitled in the Congress ; but no Senator or Represent-
ative, or person holding an oflice of trust or profit under the
United States, shall be appointed an elector.
[The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote
by ballot for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be
an inhabitant of the same State with themselves. And they
shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the num-
ber of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify,
and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United
States, directed to the President of the Senate. The President
APPENDIX 285
of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of
Kepresentatlves, open all the certificates, and the votes shall
then be counted. The person having the greatest number of
votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority of
the whole number of electors appointed, and if there' be more
than one who have such majority, and have an equal number
of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immediately
choose by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person
have a majority, then from the five highest on the list the said
House shall in like manner choose the President, But in
choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the
representation from each State having one vote ; a quorum for
this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two-
thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be
necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of the
President, the person having the greatest number of votes of
the electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should
remain two or more who have equal votes, the Senate shall
choose from them by ballot the Vice-President.] *
The Congress may determine the time of choosing the elec-
tors, and the day on which they shall give their votes ; which
day shall be the same throughout the United States.
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the
United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitu-
tion, shall be eligible to the office of President ; neither shall
any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained
to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resi-
dent within the United States.
In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his
death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and du-
ties of the said office, the same shall devolve on the Vice-
President, and the Congress may by law provide for the case
of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the Presi-
dent and Vice-President, declaring what officer shall then act
as President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the
disability be removed, or a President shall be elected.
The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services,
a compensation, which shall neither be increased nor dimin-
ished during the period for which he shall have been elected,
and he shall not receive within that period any other emolu-
ment from the United States, or any of them.
Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take
the following oath or affirmation :
*' I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully exe-
cute the office of President of the United States, and will to
• This clause is superseded by Article xn., Amendments.
286 APPENDIX
the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Con-
stitution of the United States."
Section 2. The President shall be Commander-in-Chief of
the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia
of the several States, when called into the actual service of the
United States ; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the
principal oflBcer in each of the executive departments, upon any
subject relating to the duties of their respective oflaces, and
he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences
against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of
the Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the Sena-
tors present concur ; and he shall nominate, and by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassa-
dors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme
Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appoint-
ments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall
be established by law ; but the Congress may by law vest the
appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in
the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of de-
partments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that
may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting com-
missions which shall expire at the end of their next session.
Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress
information of the state of the Union, and recommend to
their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary
and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene
both Houses, or either of them, and, in case of disagreement
between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may
adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper ; he shall
receive ambassadors and other public ministers ; he shall take
care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commis-
sion all the officers of the United States.
Section 4. The President, Vice-President, and all civil offi-
cers of the United States, shall be removed from office on
impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other
high crimes and misdemeanors.
ARTICLE III.
Section 1. The judicial power of the United States, shall
be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts
as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.
The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall
hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated
APPENDIX 287
times, receive for their services, a compensation, which shall
not be diminished during their continuance in office.
Section 2. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in
law and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of
the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made,
under their authority ; to all cases affecting ambassadors, other
public ministers and consuls ; to all cases of admiralty and
maritime jurisdiction ; to controversies to which the United
States shall be a party ; to controversies between two or more
States ; between a State and citizens of another State : be-
tween citizens of different States ; between citizens of the same
State claiming lands under grants of different States, and
between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign States,
citizens or subjects.
In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme
Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases
before-mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate juris-
diction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and
under such regulations as the Congress shall make.
The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall
be by jury ; and such trial shall be held in the State where
the said crimes shall have been committed ; but when not com-
mitted within any State, the trial shall be at such place or
places as the Congress may by law have directed.
Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall con-
sist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their
enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be
convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses
to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.
The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of
treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of
blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person at-
tainted.
ARTICLE IV.
Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each
State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings
of every other State. And the Congress may by general
laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and
proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof.
Section 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to
all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States.
A person charged in any State with treason, felonj^, or other
crime, who shall ilee from justice, and be found in another
State, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the State
288 APPENDIX
from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the State
having jurisdiction of the crime.
No person held to service or labor in one State, under the
laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of
any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service
or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to
whom such service or labor may be due.
Section 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress
into this Union ; but no new State shall be formed or erected
within the jurisdiction of any other State ; nor any State be
formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of
States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States
concerned as well as of the Congress.
The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all
needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other
property belonging to the United States ; and nothing in this
Constitution shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims
of the United States, or of any particular State.
Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every
State in this Union a republican form of government, and
shall protect each of them against invasion ; and on application
of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature
cannot be convened) against domestic violence.
ARTICLE V.
The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall
deem it necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitu-
tion, or, on the application of the Legislatures of two-thirds of
the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amend-
ments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and
purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the
Legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by con-
ventions in three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode
of ratification may be proposed by the Congress ; Provided that
no amendment which may be made prior to the year one thou-
sand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner affect the
first and fourth clauses in the Ninth Section of the First Arti-
cle ; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived
of its equal suffrage in the Senate.
ARTICLE VL
All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before
the adoption of this Constitution, shall be as valid against
the United States under this Constitution, as under the Con-
federation.
APPENDIX 289
This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which
shall be made in pursuance thereof ; and all treaties made, or
which shall be made, under the authority of the United States,
shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or
laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and
the members of the several State Legislatures, and all execu-
tive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the
several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support
this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required
as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United
States.
ARTICLE VII.
The ratification of the Conventions of nine States, shall be
sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between
the States so ratifying the same.
AMENDMENTS TO TEE CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE I.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press ; or the right of the
people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government
for a redress of grievances.
ARTICLE II.
A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of
a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms,
shall not be infringed.
ARTICLE IIL
No soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house,
without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a
manner to be prescribed by law.
290 APPENDIX
ARTICLE IV.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses,
papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiz-
ures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but
upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the per-
sons or things to be seized.
ARTICLE V.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise
infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a
grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces,
or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or
public danger ; nor shall any person be subject for the same
offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall
be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against him-
self, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due
process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public
use, without just compensation.
ARTICLE VL
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the
right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the
State and district wherein the crime shall have been com-
mitted, which district shall have been previously ascertained
by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the ac-
cusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him ; to
have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,
and to have the assistance of counsel for his defence.
ARTICLE VIL
In suits at common law, where the value in controversy
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be
preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-
examined in any court of the United States, than according to
the rules of the common law.
APPENDIX 291
ARTICLE VIII.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines im-
posed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
ARTICLE IX.
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall
not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people.
ARTICLE X.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Con-
stitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to
the States respectively, or to the people.
ARTICLE XI.
The judicial power of the United States shall not be con-
strued to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or
prosecuted against one of the United States by citizens of
another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State.
ARTICLE XIL
The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote
by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at
least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them-
selves ; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-
President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted
for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President,
and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign
and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government
of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate ;
The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Sen-
ate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and
the votes shall then be counted ; The person having the great-
est number of votes for President, shall be the President, if
such number be a majority of the whole number of electors
appointed ; and if no person have such majority, then from
the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three
on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Rep-
292 APPENDIX
resentatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President.
But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by
States, the representation from each State having one vote ; a
quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or mem-
bers from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the
States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of
Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the
right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day
of March next following, then the Vice-President shall act as
President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional
disability of the President. The person having the greatest
number of votes as Vice-President shall be the Vice-President,
if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors
appointed, and if no person have a majority, then from the
two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the
Vice-President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of
two-thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of
the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall
be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
ARTICLE XIII.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ex-
cept as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or
any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
ARTICLE XIV.
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of
the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No
State shall make or enforce any law which sliall abridge the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,
without due process of law ; nor deny to any person within
its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among
the several States according to their respective numbers, count-
ing the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Ind-
ians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election
for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of
APPENDIX 293
the United States, Tiepresentatives in Congress, the executive
and judicial otficers of a State, or the members of the Legis-
lature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the
United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation
in rebellion, or other crime, tlie basis of representation therein
shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such
male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens
twenty-one years of age in such State.
Section 8. No person shall be a Senator or Representative
in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or
holding any ofhce, civil or military, under the United States,
or under any State, wiio, having previously taken an oath, as
a member of Congress, or as an othcer of the United States, or
as a member of any State Legislature, or as an executive or
judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the
United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies there-
of. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House,
remove such disability.
Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United
States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for pay-
ment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing in-
surrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither
the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion
against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emanci-
pation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims
shall be held illegal and void.
Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by
appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
ARTICLE XV.
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or
by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition
of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this
article by appropriate legislation.
INDEX.
Abolition, 113, 162, 180, 191.
Acadia, 25.
Adams, Pres. John, 46, 60, 66, 76,
112, 228-233, 277.
Adams, Pres. John Quincy, 152,
159-160.
Agricultural machinery, 188, 224.
Alabama, 154.
" Alabama," the, 231, 250.
Alaska, 249.
Albany, 240.
Alien laws, 130.
Alleghany Mountains, 23.
Allen, Ethan, 55.
American party, 198.
" American system," 155, 169.
Andrd, John, 72.
Andrew, J. A., 211.
Annapolis, 90, 187.
Antietam, battle of, 229.
Antifederalists, 111.
"Anti-Nebraska," 198.
Arizona, 184.
Arkansas, 173.
Arnold, Benedict, 61, 72, 74.
Arthur, Pres. Chester A., 263, 277.
Articles of Association, 51.
Articles of Confederation, 79.
Asiento, the, 26.
Assembly, 9, 37-39, 46, 85.
Atlanta, 238.
Baltimore, 115, 148, 217.
Bank of the United States,
152, 167.
Bankruptcy, 100.
Banks, 176, 225.
Baptists, 12, 195.
Barbary pirates, 141.
Bell, John, 206.
Bemis Heights, 71.
Bennington, battle of, 70.
Benton, T. H., 169.
Berlin decree, 144.
Billeting Act, 40.
Black Hawk war, 188.
Black list, the, 270.
Blockade, the, 217, 235.
Board of trade, British, 20, 34.
Bonds, 223, 261.
Boone, Daniel, 47.
Boston, 45, 53, 64, 115.
Boston Port Act, 49.
Boycott, the, 271.
Braddock, Edward, 28.
Bragg, B., 231-233.
Brandywine, battle of, 71.
Breckinridge, J. C, 206-207, 216, 277.
Brown, John, 205.
Buchanan, Pres. James, 202, 277.
Buckingham, W. A., 211.
Buena Vista, 183.
Bull Run, battle of, 219, 229.
Bunker Hill, 60.
Burgoyne, John, 70.
Burnside, A. E., 229.
Burr, Aaron, 133, 141, 277.
Cabinet, 101.
124, Cabots, the, 1, 30.
Calhoun, John C, 146, 159. 169-171.
197, 277.
295
296
INDEX.
California, 140, 186, 187.
Camden, battle of, 73.
Canada, 23-26, 28-30. 61, 146, 250.
Canals, 135, 155.
Carleton, Sir Guy, 52.
Carolina, 5.
Cass, Lewis, 169, 185.
Caucus, 167.
Cedar Creek, 238.
Census, 95.
Chamj)lain, Lake, battle of, 149.
Chancellorsville, 233.
Chandler, Zachariah, 213.
Charleston, m, 73, 170.
Charter governments, 8.
Chase, Salmon P., 196.
Chattanooga, 233.
Chesapeake Bay, 75, 89.
Chicago, 173.
Chickamauga, 233.
Chinese immigration, 250.
Chippewa, battle of, 148.
Cincinnati, 116, 147.
Cincinnati, society of the, 77.
Cities, 115, 134, 172, 268.
Civil Rights Act, 259.
Civil service, 166, 263.
Civil War, 214-244.
Clark, G. R., 76.
Clay, Henry, 146, 156, 159-160, 196.
Cleveland, Pres. Grover, 264, 277.
Clinton, De Witt, 155.
Clinton, Sir Henry, 71, 73, 75.
Coal, 172, 251.
Cold Harbor, 237.
Colfax, Schuyler, 248, 277.
Colleges, 17.
Colonial rights, 35-45.
Colonies, revolt of, 53-55.
Colonization, 1-22.
Colorado, 261.
Columbia College, 17.
Commerce, 17, 88, 98, 100, 115.
Concord, battle of, 53.
Confederate states, 208-216.
Confederation, Articles of, 79.
Congregational Church, 12.
Congress, Continental, 38, 50, 55,
64-66, 70, 77, 79-89.
Congress, Stamp Act, 42.
Congress of the United States, 92-
111.
Connecticut, 8-10, 90, 92.
Conscription, 236.
Constitution, 93-132, 121-126, 129,
131, 134.
Contracts, 100.
Convention of 1787, 90.
Conventions, party, state, 167, 20&-
209.
Copper, 188.
Copyright, 98.
Cornwallis, Lord, 68, 73-75.
Corporations, 176, 265, 267-270.
Cotton, 115, 137, 153, 254.
Counties, 10.
Courts, Federal, 94, 104-106.
Cowpens, battle of, 73.
Crawford, Wm. H., 146, 152, 159.
Credit Mobilier, 257.
Cuba, 200.
Currency, continental, 61; state,
87; Federal, 220, 256.
Dakota, 96, 253.
Dane, Nathan, 84.
Dartmouth College case, 266.
Davis, Jefferson, 196, 209, 239, 241-
243.
Debt, public, 86, 107, 175, 235, 242,
262.
Decatur, Stephen, 149.
Declaration of Independence, 26,
38, 65, 120.
Delaware, 7, 81.
Democracy, 13, 120, 121, 139, 174,
196, 213, 272.
Democratic party, 127, 137, 167,
198-199, 201-202, 204-207, 260,
263-264.
Departments, 100-101.
Deposits, removal of, 176.
Detroit, 24, 47, 147, 163.
District of Columbia, 98, 186.
INDEX.
297
Dorchester, Mass., 10.
Douglas, Stephen A., 198, 205-206,
215.
Dred Scott case, 86, 113, 203,
248.
Dutch settlements, 6.
Duties, 99, 124, 155, 222.
Education, 16.
Edwards, Jonathan, 117.
Election laws, 95, 259.
Elective franchise, 121, 248.
Electoral system, 94-96, 101-104,
121.
Ellsworth, Oliver, 90.
Emancipation, 230.
Embargo, the, 145.
England, Church of, 12, 50, 195.
Entails, 14.
Erie, Lake, battle of, 149.
Erie Canal, 155, 163.
Eutaw Springs, 74.
Excise, 98, 127, 256, 257.
Exports, 19, 98, 115.
Express companies, 172.
Fair Oaks, battle of, 228.
Farragut, D. G., 226, 240.
Federal Government, 22, 79-113.
Federal party, 111, 134, 151.
Federal questions, 105-110.
Filibustering, 200.
Fillmore, Pres. Millard, 196, 202,
203, 277.
Fisheries, 77, 250.
Five Forks, battle of, 241.
Flag of United States, 63.
Florida, 13, 29, 76, 182, 187, 188.
Force Act, the, 259.
Fort Du Quesne, 28, 29.
Fort Hatteras, 219.
Fort Necessity, 28.
Fort Sumter, 212-215.
France, 6, 23-34. 65, 69, 126-129,
139, 144, 249.
Franklin, Benjamin, 64, 65, 69, 76.
Fredericksburg, 230.
Freedmen's Bureau Act, 247.
Free Soil party, 185.
Free trade, 187, 263.
Fremont, J. C, 202.
French and Indian war, 28.
Fugitive slave laws, 84, 106, 186,
197.
Gage, Thomas, 49, 53, 61, 63.
Gaines's Mill, 229.
Garfield, Pres. James A., 263, 277.
Garrison, Wm. L., 180.
" Gaspee," the, 49.
Gates, Horatio, 60, 71.
Genet, E. C, 127.
Georgia, 5, 73.
Germantown, 71.
Gerry, Elbridge, 90, 277.
Gettysburg, 234.
Ghent, treaty of, 150.
Gold, 185, 251.
Gosnold, Bartholomew, 2.
Governments, colonial, 7, 46.
Grant, Pres. Ulysses S., 225, 231-
233, 236-239, 241, 242, 248, 260,
261, 277.
Grasse, Comte de, 75.
Great Britain, 33-46, 142-151, 157,
252.
Greeley, Horace, 260.
Greenbacks, 220.
Grenville, George, 39.
Guadalupe Hidalgo, treaty of,
184.
Guilford, battle of, 74.
Habeas corpus, 99, 218, 224, 260.
Hamilton, A., 112, 124-126.
Hamlin, H., 206, 277.
Hancock, John, 44.
Hancock, W. S., 263.
Harrison, Pres. William H., 146,
179, 277.
Harrison, Pres. Benjamin, 277.
Hartford convention, 150.
Harvard College, 17.
Hayes, Pres. R. B., 260-261, 277
298
INDEX.
Hayne, Robert Y., 169.
Hendricks, T. A., 260, 264, 277.
Henry, Patrick, 41.
Hobkirk's Hill, 74.
Holland, n-7, 72.
Homestead system, 164.
Hood, J. B., 239.
Hooker, Joseph, 230.
House of representatives, 95.
Howe, Earl, 67-69.
Howe, Viscount, 67.
Howe, Sir William, 66-69.
Hudson, Henry, 6.
Hudson river, 155.
Hudson's Bay Co., 182.
Hull, WiUiam, 147.
Illinois. 85, 115, 154.
Immigration, 12, 121, 143, 165, 172,
192, 250.
Impeachment, 97, 101, 104.
Imports, 21, 115.
Impressment, 143, 151.
Independence, 62, 75.
Indiana, 85, 154.
Indigo, 15, 19.
Inter-State Commerce Act, 94, 267.
Inventions, 171, 188.
Iowa, 187.
Ireland, 38, 250.
Iron, 18, 153, 172, 254.
Ironclad vessels, 227.
Jackson, Pres. Andrew, 150, 158-
161, 166-171, 175-179, 277.
Jackson, T. J., 228-229, 234.
Jamestown, 3.
Japan, 199.
Jay, John, 64, 76, 112, 128.
Jay treaty, 128, 142.
Jefferson, Pres. Thomas, 65-66,
84, 114, 124-126, 127, 130-133,
277.
eJohnson, Pres. Andrew, 240, 245-
247.
Johnson, Sir William, 28.
Johnston. A. S., 226, 277.
Johnston, Joseph E., 228, 232-233,
241-242.
Jones, Paul, 73.
Judiciary, 94, 104, 194.
Kansas, 197, 200, 211.
Kansas-Nebraska Act, 197-199.
Kentucky, 47, 127, 135.
Kentucky resolutions, 131.
King, Rufus, 90.
Knights of Labor, 270.
Know-nothing party, 198.
Knox, Henry, 124.
Kosciusko, Thaddeus, 69.
Koszta case, 199.
Ku Klux Klan, 258.
Labor difficulties, 269-270.
La Fayette, Marquis de, 69, 74.
Land system, 163, 175.
Lawrence, J., 149,
Lee, Charles, 60, 64.
Lee, Robert E., 228-230, 240-242.
Legal tender, 100, 177.
Legislatures, 9, 55, 79, 96, 97.
Lewis and Clarke, 140.
Lexington, battle of, 53.
Liberal party, 182, 185.
Liberal Republican party, 260.
Lincoln, Pres. Abraham, 206, 214-
218, 225, 242, 277.
Literature, 117, 156, 174.
Livingston, Edward, 169.
Locomotive engine, 171.
London Company, 2-A.
Long Island, battle of, 67.
Lookout Mountain, 233.
Louisburg, 26, 29.
Louisiana, 30, 139, 141, 147, 150.
Lundy's Lane, 148.
McClellan, G. B., 219, 227-229,
210.
Macdonough, T., 149.
Madison, Pres. James, 90, 112, 146,
277.
Maine, 5, 154.
INDEX.
299
Manassas, battle of, 219.
Manufactures, 18-20, 115, 153-154,
224, 251.
Marcy, W. L., 169.
Marion, Francis, 73.
Maryland, 4, 8, 9, 81, 89, 112.
Mason, George, 90.
Massachusetts, 2, 4, 5, 8-11, 40-41,
45, 48-55, 88.
"Mayflower," the, 4.
Meade, G. G., 234.
Message, president's, 100.
Methodists, 195.
Mexico, 141, 183-184.
Michigan, 85, 173, 188.
Milan decree, 144.
Militia, 98.
Mining, 18.
Minnesota, 204.
Missionary Ridge, 233.
Mississippi, 154.
Mississippi river, 23, 118, 140, 217,
226, 232.
Missouri, 154, 161, 200.
Missouri compromise, 162, 203.
Mobile, 23.
Mobile Bay, 240.
Monmouth, 72.
Monroe, Pres. James, 154, 157-159,
277.
Montgomery, E,., 61.
Morgan, Daniel, 73.
Morgan, E. D., 211.
Mormons, 189.
Morrill tariff, 211, 222.
Morris, Robert, 87, 90.
Morton, O. P., 211.
Murfreesboro, 231.
Nashville, battle of, 239.
National banks, 225.
National Republican party, 159.
Naturalization, 98, 130, 143.
Natural gas, 251.
Navigation laws, 19, 39, 44.
Navy, 64, 128, 142, 144-147, 148-151.
214, 227, 256.
Nebraska, 197, 200, 247, 253.
Nevada, 240, 251.
New Amsterdam, 6.
New England, 4-32, 66, 134, 145-
146, 149, 153.
New France, 23.
New Hampshire, 5, 8, 91.
New Jersey, 7, 8, 11, 68-69, 81, 91.
New Mexico, 183-184.
New Orleans, 23, 25, 150, 227, 258.
Newport, 69, 72.
Newport, Christopher, 3.
Newspapers, 175, 257.
New York, 7, 8, 44. 82, 90, 118, 147,
155.
New York city, 7, 17, 66-67, 71-73,
115, 155, 236.
Non-importation agreement, 44.
Non-intercourse law, 145.
North Carolina, 8, 73, 92, 112,
123.
North West, the, 76, 85, 118, 215.
Nova Scotia, 28.
Ohio, 84, 115, 118, 147.
Ohio Company, 27.
Orders in Council, 144.
Ordinance of 1787, 84, 114, 116.
Ordinance of Secession, 95, 208.
Oregon, 204.
Oregon country, the, 140, 158, 182,
184.
Ostend manifesto, 200.
Otis, James, 35.
Paine, Thomas, 64, 89.
Panic of 1837, 178; of 1873, 254^
268.
Parish, 9.
Parliament, British, 19, 34-53.
Patents, 98, 136.
Patrons of Husbandry, 269.
Patroons, 11.
Pendleton Act, 264.
Peninsular campaign, 227.
Penn, Wm., 7.
Pennsylvania, 7, 12.
300
INDEX.
Pennsylvania University, 17.
Pensions, 243.
Perry, O. H., 149.
Personal liberty laws, 187.
Petersburg, 237, 241.
Petroleum, 251.
Pliiladelpbia, 71, 115.
Pierce, Pres. Franklin, 195, 277.
Pinckuey, C, 90.
Pinckney, C. C, 90.
Pitt, Wm., 20, 28, 43.
Pittsburgh, 27, 247.
Pittsburg Landing, 226.
Plymouth, Mass., 4.
Plymouth Company, 2.
Polk, Pres. James K., 277.
Polygamy, 189.
Pope, John, 229.
Population, 204, 255.
Port Hudson, 227, 232.
Port Royal, N. S., 25.
Port Royal, S. C, 219.
Post-office, 136.
Presbyterians, 195.
President, 100-103.
Presidents, list of, 277.
Presque Isle, 27.
Princeton, battle of, 68.
Princeton College, 17.
Proprietary governments, 8.
Protection, 87, 123, 152, 170, 187,
222.
Public lands, 163.
Pulaski, Count, 69, 73.
Puritans, 4, 50.
Putnam, Israel, 67.
Quakers, 22.
Quebec, 29, 61.
Railways, 171, 188, 220, 252.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 1.
Randolph, E., 90, 124.
Rawdon, Lord, 74.
Reconstruction, 245, 259.
Refunding, 262.
Representatives, 95.
Republican party (of 1793), 126,
130.
Republican party (of 1856), 198,
214, 245, 263.
Repudiation, 58, 178.
Requisitions, 86.
Revenue, 222.
Revolution, American, 9, 55, 74-76.
Rhode Island, 5, 11, 90, 112, 123.
Rice, 15.
Richmond, 216, 237, 241.
"Rings," 256.
Roads, 116, 135.
Rocky Mountains, 140.
Roman Catholics, 195.
Rosecraus, Wm. S., 231.
Royal governments, 8.
Russia, 158.
Rutledge, John, 90.
Saratoga, surrender at, 71.
Savannah, 73, 240.
Schools, 164, 174.
Schuyler, Philip, 60.
Scott, Winfield, 148, 183, 195, 219.
Search, right of, 144, 151.
Secession, 57, 95, 207-211.
Sedition law, 130.
Seminole war, 188.
Senate, 96, 193.
Seven days' battles, 229.
Seven Pines, 228.
Seward, Wm. H., 196, 210.
Seymour, Horatio, 248.
Sharpsburg, 229.
Shenandoah valley, 228, 238.
Sheridan, P. H., 238, 241.
Sherman, Roger, 90.
Sherman, W. T., 236, 238-242.
Shipping, 17.
Silver, 251, 261.
Six Nations, 82.
Slave representation, 93, 191.
Slavery, 4, 84, 113, 137, 161, 184-187,
189-194, 203, 206, 220, 230, 245-
249.
Slave trade, 26, 93.
INDEX.
301
" Sons of Liberty," 41.
South America, 157.
South Carolina, 8, 41, 73, 112, 170,
207.
Spain, 6, 29, 118, 139, 157.
Specie circular, 177.
Squatter sovereignty, 185.
Stamp Act, 39-43.
Stark, John, 70.
Star routes, 257.
States, 22, 57, 84, 87, 92, 93, 96, 100,
121, 122.
State sovereignty, 57, 79, 109, 130,
133, 161, 216.
Steam navigation, 116, 140, 163,
172.
Stephens, A. H., 196, 208.
Steuben, Baron von, 69.
Stony Point, 72.
Sub-treasury law, 178, 179.
Suffrage, right of, 121, 248.
Sumner, Charles, 196.
Sumter, Thomas, 73.
Supreme Court, 95, 99, 104-106.
Sweden, 6.
Taney, R. B., 169.
Taxation, British, 36-53.
Taxation, United States, 58, 87, 98,
222, 243.
Taylor, Pres. Zachary, 183, 185-
186.
Tea-tax, 48.
Tecumseh, 146.
Telegraph, 172, 188, 252.
Telephone, 252.
Tennessee, 47, 127, 135.
Tenure of Office Act, 247.
Territories, 84-86, 96, 184-186.
Texas, 181-183.
Thames, battle of, 149.
Theology, 117.
Thomas, George H., 233, 239.
Ticonderoga, 39, 55.
Tilden, S. J., 260.
Tippecanoe, 146.
Titles, 14, 100.
Tobacco, 15, 19.
Towns, 10, 45.
Townshend, Charles, 39, 43.
Townships, 164.
Trade unions, 270.
Treason, 106, 242.
Treaties, 100.
"Trent" case, 219.
Trenton, battle of, 68.
Tyler, Pres. John, 179, 277.
Union, plans of, 30; drift towards,
41-46; accomplished, 55, 105-110,
122, 141; attacked, 197; main-
tained, 246-249.
United States, date of political
origin of, 59; of legal origin, 66.
Utah, 184, 189.
Valley Forge, 71.
Van Buren, Pres. Martin, 169, 177-
180, 185.
Vermont, 11, 127.
Veto power, 57, 97.
Vice-president, 100-104.
Vicksburg, 227, 232.
Virginia, 3, 8, 17, 41, 74, 81, 83,
91.
Virginia resolutions, 131.
Walker, Robert J., 187.
Ward, Artemas, 60.
Washington, Pres. George, 27, 60-
75, 77, 87, 90, 112-129, 277.
Washington city, 134, 148.
Wayne, Anthony, 72, 135.
Wealth, national, 252.
Webster, Daniel, 118, 169, 196.
West, the, 135, 172.
West Point, 72, 187.
West Virginia, 225.
Wheeler, W. A., 260, 277.
Whig party, 134, 159, 167-168.
Whiskey insurrection, 127.
Whiskey ring, 256.
Whitefield, Rev. George, 13.
Whitney, Eli, 137.
302
INDEX.
Wilderness, battles of the, 237.
William and Mary College, 17.
Wilmington, 241.
Wilmot proviso, 185.
Wilson's Creek, 219.
Wisconsin, 85, 187-188.
Woodbury, Levi, 169.
Wythe, George, 90.
X.Y.Z. mission, 128.
Yale College, 17.
Yellow fever, 134.
Yorktown, 75, 227.
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